Jasprit Bumrah named in India squad for Asian Games

MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday announced a strong 15-member squad for the Asian Games 2026, featuring ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah.

Bumrah, who, alongside fellow senior campaigner Hardik Pandya, was rested from India's squad for the T20I series against Ireland and England, was selected for the Games in Japan.

The 32-year-old pacer will replace Mohamed Siraj, who is part of the T20I squads in Ireland and England, while Prince Yadav, the 16th man of those squads, was not picked for the Games.

Newly appointed T20I captain Shreyas Iyer will lead India at the Asian Games' cricket competition as it will be played in the shortest format, while 15-year-old batter Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who earned his maiden national call-up for the Ireland and England series, is also included and will compete for a top-order spot alongside Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan.

The men's cricket competition at the Games will run from September 24 to October 3 and will feature 10 teams – Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Oman.

Notably, the Asian Games' schedule coincides with India's home white-ball series against West Indies, comprising three ODIs and five T20Is, set to take place from September 27 to October 17.

India enter the tournament as the defending champions, having won the gold medal in Hangzhou, China in October 2023 on the virtue of being the higher-seeded team in the final against Afghanistan, which was washed out due to rain.

India men's T20I squad for Asian Games

Shreyas Iyer (capt), Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma (vice-capt), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Jasprit Bumrah.