Pakistan has secured direct qualification for the knockout stage of the men’s cricket competition at the 2026 Asian Games, joining Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.
The four teams will skip the preliminary round, while Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal and Oman will compete for the remaining knockout places.
The draws and groupings for the men’s and women’s cricket tournaments were announced on Thursday. The men’s competition will feature 10 teams, while eight teams will participate in the women’s event.
The men’s tournament will be played from September 24 to October 1 and will begin with two preliminary groups.
Afghanistan, Japan and Nepal have been placed in Group A, while Hong Kong, Malaysia and Oman will compete in Group B.
The top two teams from each group will advance to the knockout stage, where they will join the four directly qualified teams: Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.
Pakistan will also participate in the women’s cricket competition, which will begin directly with the quarter-finals. Pakistan will face Thailand, while India will play Japan, Bangladesh will take on China and Sri Lanka will meet Malaysia.
The women’s tournament will run from September 17 to 22.
All men’s and women’s matches will be played in Nagoya, Japan, in the T20 format.
India will enter both competitions as the defending champion after winning the men’s and women’s gold medals at the 2023 Asian Games.
In the men’s final in Hangzhou, rain washed out the match after Afghanistan had reached 112 for five in 18.2 overs. India were awarded the gold medal under the tournament regulations because they were the higher-seeded team.
In the women’s final, India defeated Sri Lanka by 19 runs to secure the gold medal.
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