Asian Games 2026: India qualify for semis as match against Afghanistan abandoned without toss
India vs Afghanistan Asian Games 2026: India will take on Afghanistan. (FILE photo)
Shreyas Iyer’s India will lock horns with Darwish Rasooli’s Afghanistan at the Asian Games 2026 in Nisshin on Monday. Both teams recently played a bilateral T20I series in which India whitewashed Afghanistan.
While the Indian squad hasn’t changed much since that series, they have kept their core players intact, apart from players like Nitish Kumar Reddy and a few others who played in an ODI series against the West Indies in India. Afghanistan, though, has new faces from that series who would like to make their mark.
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However, the biggest threat for Afghanistan today is rain. Pakistan have already managed to qualify for the semifinal because of the earlier washout, and the forecast is not promising for the Indian games either. If it were to be a washout, India winning means the Men in Blue will take on Pakistan on Thursday in the semis.
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Asian Games: Amid rain threat, Shreyas Iyer & Co begin gold defence against new-look Afghanistan
Jasprit Bumrah of India during the Practice Session at Korogi Sports Park, Nisshin, Japan, on September 27, 2026. Photo: Deepak Malik / CREIMAS for BCCI
India will face Afghanistan in the Asian Games quarterfinal in Nagoya less than two weeks after sweeping them in Delhi. However, Afghanistan is fielding a different, lesser-known squad—missing star players like Rashid Khan, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, and Mohammad Nabi, and replacing them with players like Arab Gul Momand, Nangeyalia Kharoti, Mohammad Akram, and Ismat Alam who are already accustomed to Japanese conditions. (Read more from Shankar Narayan)
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