The Indian men’s and women’s teams have gotten direct entries into the quarterfinals of the upcoming Asian Games. The 19th Asian Games Hangzhou will be held from 19th September to 8th October 2023 at Zhejiang University of Technology Pingfeng Cricket Field. The men’s cricket competition will take place from 28th September to 8th October in a T20 format.
Team India didn’t take part when cricket was part of the Asian Games last time in Incheon in 2014. This will be the fourth time when the game of cricket will be part of the prestigious Asian Games event.
Four teams in both men’s and women’s events — India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh — will be directly playing from the last eight stages, courtesy the ICC T20I ranking on June 1. All the matches will have official T20I status.
The men’s event will comprise 18 teams while women’s event will have 14 outfits.
The BCCI has picked a second-string squad for the men’s team as Ruturaj Gaikwad will lead in the absence of senior starts in the side. Several young talents like Rinku Singh and Prabhsimran Singh got the maiden call-ups.
Unlike the men’s squad, the BCCI decided to pick a full-strength women’s squad. Harmanpreet Kaur will lead the Women in Blue in the major tournament and Smriti Mandhana will continue to act as her deputy. Star performers Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues and Deepti Sharma also got picked in the squad for the multi-nation event.
However, Harmanpreet will only play in the tournament if the team managed to reach the final as she has been served a two-match ban after his antics during third ODI against Bangladesh.
It is unlikely that the men’s team will be reporting to the Games Village before the start of the opening ceremony as there will be nearly two weeks time before their campaign starts.
The BCCI hasn’t yet confirmed whether the cricket teams will stay in the Games Village or at a five-star facility in the city.
Team India (Senior Women) squad for 19th Asian Games: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Amanjot Kaur, Devika Vaidya, Anjali Sarvani, Titas Sadhu, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Minnu Mani, Kanika Ahuja, Uma Chetry (wk), Anusha Bareddy
Team India (Senior Men) squad for 19th Asian Games: Ruturaj Gaikwad (Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul Tripathi, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Shivam Mavi, Shivam Dube, Prabhsimran Singh (wk)
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