The Indian men’s cricket team will face Afghanistan in the quarter-final at the Asian Games after the latter finished second in Group A. The contest between Afghanistan and Nepal was washed out due to rain on Saturday, and hence Nepal finished at the top of the standings. Nepal beat Afghanistan on Friday and jumped to the top of the table, setting up a clash against Sri Lanka at the Asian Games.
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh attained direct qualification for the quarter-finals. Among all the participating teams, only India and Bangladesh have named full-strength squads, and the team captained by Shreyas Iyer is the favourite for the gold.
In the last Asian Games, India won the gold medal under the captaincy of Ruturaj Gaikwad. At that time, the Men in Blue sent a second-string squad, but the other teams were no match for India.
Tilak Varma would be serving as Shreyas’ deputy in the Asian Games, and the Indian squad comprises the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
Speaking of Pakistan, the Green Shirts would be led by Sahibzada Farhan; however, the team doesn’t have Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf or Naseem Shah.
The gold medal match for the Asian Games is scheduled for Saturday, October 3. The bronze medal match would also be played on the same day, preceding the final. India and Pakistan can only meet in either the bronze-medal or gold-medal match, and there’s no chance of these two teams meeting in the semi-final.
Full quarter-final lineup for men’s cricket at the Asian Games:
Pakistan vs B2 – Monday, September 28 – 5:30 AM
India vs Afghanistan – Monday, September 28 – 10 AM
Sri Lanka vs Nepal – Tuesday, September 29 – 5:30 AM
Bangladesh vs B1 – Tuesday, September 29 – 10 AM
Squads of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka
India: Shreyas Iyer (c), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma, Vipraj Nigam, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
Pakistan: Sahibzada Farhan (c), Abdul Samad (vc), Abrar Ahmed, Ahmed Daniyal, Akif Javed, Ali Raza, Arafat Minhas, Haider Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Maaz Sadaqat, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Saad Masood, Saim Ayub, Sufyan Moqim, Usman Khan.
Sri Lanka: Sahan Arachchige (c), Ashen Bandara, Lasith Croospulle, Sohan de Livera, Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Binura Fernando, Nuwanidu Fernando, Tharindu Ratnayake, Dushan Hemantha, Sineth Jayawardena, Chamika Karunaratne, Garuka Sanketh, Wanuja Sahan, Nuwan Thushara, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth.
Bangladesh: Litton Das (c), Tanzid Hasan, Parvez Hossain Emon, Mohammed Saif Hasan, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Tawhid Hridoy, Musaddek Hossain Saikat, Yasir Ali Chowdhury, Rishad Hossain, Shak Mahedi Hasan, Nasum Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Hasan Mahmud, Aliss Al Islam.
