Laxman takes India to the Asian Games, and Gambhir stays home for the West Indies ODIs
India will run two coaching set-ups this month, with VVS Laxman leading the Asian Games squad in Japan while Gautam Gambhir stays back for the West Indies ODIs.
Sep 3, 2026
India will run two coaching set-ups at the same time this month. VVS Laxman, the director of cricket at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence, has been handed the men’s team for the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, while head coach Gautam Gambhir stays back in India for the ODI series against the West Indies.
The calendar left no other option
The men’s tournament at Korogi Athletic Park in Aichi begins on 24 September, India play their first match four days later, and the medal games are on 3 October. The first ODI against the West Indies is on 27 September. One coach cannot be in Japan and at home in the same week, so the board split the job rather than water down either assignment.
Laxman has done this before. He was in charge when India won the gold medal in the T20 competition at the 2023 Games in Hangzhou, a tournament the senior coach also skipped. He takes Sunil Joshi, Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Subhadeep Ghosh with him to Japan.
Delhi first, then Japan
The group Laxman inherits is not a scratch side. Shreyas Iyer captains it, Tilak Varma is his deputy, and the same 15 play three T20Is against Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on 13, 15 and 17 September before they fly out. That is three competitive matches to settle a batting order and work out who bowls the middle overs, which is more preparation than most teams get before a title defence.
Jasprit Bumrah is in the squad, and so is Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. It is a stronger group than the one that went to Hangzhou, where the BCCI sent a second-string side and still came home with gold.
These are not exhibition games either. Cricket returned to the Games at Hangzhou with full T20I status, so runs and wickets in Japan go on the record and into the rankings. Ten men’s teams are in the draw, and for someone like Sooryavanshi that is a fortnight of international cricket in front of selectors who have an ODI squad to name shortly afterwards.
The women go earlier. Their tournament starts on 17 September with the medal matches on the 22nd, Harmanpreet Kaur leads, Smriti Mandhana is vice-captain, and they are defending champions too. Jemimah Rodrigues was named in that squad and then ruled out with a hamstring injury picked up during The Hundred in August. Pratika Rawal replaced her.
A busy day in Mumbai
The Laxman decision landed on the same day the BCCI held its review meeting in Mumbai. Gambhir was there, along with president Mithun Manhas, secretary Devajit Saikia, chief selector Ajit Agarkar on a video link, and both captains, Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer. Reporters at the venue had it that Rohit Sharma’s ODI future and the shape of the side for the 2027 World Cup took up most of the discussion, with the board unhappy at how little of that roadmap exists 13 months out from a tournament that starts on 4 October 2027.
No press conference followed, which tells its own story. Nothing about Rohit was settled in public, and the board seems content to leave it that way until the West Indies series gives the selectors something to react to.
For Laxman, none of that is his problem for the next month. He has a squad, three T20Is in Delhi against an Afghanistan side carrying Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi and Rahmanullah Gurbaz, and a gold medal to defend in Japan.