The draw for the cricket events at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan has been confirmed. The women’s competition will feature an eight-team knockout tournament, while the men’s competition will begin with a qualifying round in which the six affiliates and lower-ranked teams will be divided into two groups.
Notably, the women’s cricket tournament will begin on September 17 and conclude with the medal matches on September 22. The men’s T20 tournament will begin on September 24 at the Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin, with the gold medal match on October 3 to conclude the cricket competition.
India will face host Japan in the women’s quarterfinals of the 2026 Asian Games.
Defending champions India will begin their title defense against hosts Japan in the women’s quarterfinals at the 2026 Asian Games. The women’s cricket competition will be played in knockout format. To win the gold medal, every team will have to win three consecutive matches.
Bangladesh will face the People’s Republic of China in another quarter-final after China secured qualification for the tournament. Sri Lanka will face Malaysia in the knockout match as both the teams aim to make it to the semi-finals.
Pakistan will face Thailand in the women’s final quarter-final. Thailand have been one of the strongest associate teams in women’s cricket in recent years and will be looking to pull off a major upset against Pakistan to reach the last four of the competition.
Men’s Asian Games begins with qualifying round
The men’s cricket tournament will follow a different format from the women’s event. Ten teams will compete, with the top four ranked teams gaining direct entry into the quarter-finals. The remaining six teams will play in the preliminary round, divided into two groups of three each.
Group A includes Nepal, Afghanistan and hosts Japan, who are preparing for a competitive battle for qualification. Group B includes Hong Kong, Malaysia and Oman. Each team will play the other two teams in its group in a round-robin format between September 24 and September 26.
The top two teams from each group will qualify for the quarter-finals and will join the four seeded teams in the knockout stage. This format gives the associate nations a chance to make it to the last eight and challenge the top cricket teams in Asia.
The top four teams in the Asian Games get direct quarterfinal berths
Defending champions India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have received direct entry into the men’s quarter-finals as the four highest-ranked full member teams. They have already been seeded into Quarterfinals 1 to 4 and will face the teams that qualified from the preliminary group stage.
Nepal will have a chance to reach the knockout stage if they finish in the top two of Group A, which also includes Afghanistan and hosts Japan. After the quarter-finals, there will be semi-finals, bronze medal match and gold medal final.
Both the men’s and women’s events will be played at Korogi Sports Park in Aichi Prefecture. With cricket returning to the Olympic Games in Los Angeles 2028, the 2026 Asian Games will give teams an important opportunity to build momentum on the international stage and gain valuable experience.
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