India get a bye into the Asian Games cricket quarter-finals as the Japan draw lands

India’s cricketers will not have to play a group game at the Asian Games. The draw released on Thursday hands India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh direct entry into the men’s quarter-finals, with the four seeds settled by the ICC men’s T20I team rankings as they stood on 23 July.

Ten teams, and only six of them start at the bottom

The men’s competition runs from 24 September to 1 October at Korogi Athletic Park in Japan’s Aichi prefecture, in T20 format. Six sides have to come through a preliminary round first. Group A has Afghanistan, Japan and Nepal, Group B has Hong Kong, Malaysia and Oman, and the top two from each group join the seeded four in the quarter-finals.

That is a short tournament for India. Win two matches and they are in a gold medal game. That is roughly how 2023 went, except they never had to finish the final.

Afghanistan have to play their way in

The oddity of this draw is where Afghanistan have landed. They have finished second in all three Asian Games cricket tournaments they have entered, including in 2023, when the final against India was abandoned with Afghanistan 112 for 5 after 18.2 overs and the gold went to India as the higher-seeded side. Three silvers later, they open in a group with Japan and Nepal.

India, for their part, had skipped the 2010 and 2014 editions altogether and won the men’s gold on debut in Hangzhou. The medal was real. The final was not.

India’s women open against the hosts

The women’s tournament is a straight knockout from the quarter-finals, eight teams, running 17 to 22 September with both medal matches on the closing day. India, the defending champions, have been drawn against Japan. Bangladesh face China, Sri Lanka meet Malaysia, and Pakistan play Thailand, which means a win over the hosts would put India into a semi-final against Bangladesh or China.

India’s women beat Sri Lanka by 19 runs in the 2023 final, so they arrive in Japan with a title to defend and a draw that does not ask much of them early.

India and Pakistan are kept apart

The two are on opposite sides of the men’s bracket, so the fixture everyone will ask about cannot happen before the semi-finals. Both would have to get through their quarter-final against a qualifier for it to be live at all. Worth remembering too that the gold in Hangzhou was won by a second-string India led by Ruturaj Gaikwad, because the men’s World Cup at home began three days before the Asian Games ended and the first-choice players were needed there. Who the BCCI sends to Japan is a question for selection meetings closer to September. For now the pathway is the easiest one either country could have asked for.

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