The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has reportedly finalized a 30-man probable list for the upcoming 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
As many as nine members of India’s squad that secured the gold medal at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou have been retained in this initial long list.
Among the notable inclusions are 15-year-old batting prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Shreyas Iyer, while T20 World Cup-winning captain Suryakumar Yadav has failed to make the cut.
Ruturaj Gaikwad, who led India to gold during the 2023 edition of the Games, has also been picked despite his last T20I appearance being in July 2024.
According to a report in Amar Ujala, the BCCI has shared the list of probables with the organisers of the continental event, ahead of trimming it down to a final 15-member squad.
The competition is slated to take place from September 24 to October 3, which means it will clash with India’s three-match ODI series against the West Indies at home, which is scheduled from September 27 to October 3.
With India head coach Gautam Gambhir is likely to remain occupied with the ODI squad, he will not travel to Japan for the Asian Games. Instead, batting legend VVS Laxman will step in to serve as head coach.
Sooryavanshi’s inclusion stands out as the most prominent headline. Playing for Rajasthan Royals, the teenage sensation capped off a magnificent IPL 2026 campaign where he claimed the Orange Cap with 776 runs in 16 innings at a staggering strike rate of 237.30, including one hundred and five half-centuries.
Thanks to his stunning exploits in the IPL, calls for Sooryavanshi’s selection in the senior India squad have grown louder.
Before the Asian Games, the Men in Blue are scheduled to tour Ireland for a two-match T20I series, followed by a five-match T20I series in England.
India's probable list to IOA (via PTI):
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Ayush Badoni, Harsh Dubey, Dhruv Jurel, Khaleel Ahmed, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravi Bishnoi, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shivam Dube, Vipraj Nigam Nigam, Harshit Rana, Yash Thakur, Washington Sundar.
