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Gautam Gambhir will not be in charge of the Indian men’s cricket team at the Asian Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. Instead, the coaching responsibility will be handed to VVS Laxman, the Director of Cricket at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE). Laxman will be joined by Sunil Joshi, Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Subhadeep Ghosh, according to the list of coaches released by the Sports Ministry.
This will not be Laxman’s first stint with the Indian team at the Asian Games. He was also the coach when India won the men’s gold medal at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
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Why is Gambhir not travelling with the Asian Games 2026 squad?
Gambhir, meanwhile, will remain with the senior Indian team for the home ODI series against the West Indies. The first ODI of the series is scheduled for September 27.
The cricket competition at the Asian Games will begin on September 24, with India playing its first match four days later.
For the women’s team, Amol Muzumdar will continue as head coach. He will be assisted by bowling coach Aavishkar Salvi and fielding coach Munish Bali.
India’s women will enter the competition in the quarter-finals and face hosts Japan. The men’s team will take on the second-placed team from Group A, which features Afghanistan, Japan and Nepal.
India will look to defend both its men’s and women’s Asian Games titles. The men’s side will be led by Shreyas Iyer and will also feature teenage batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, while Harmanpreet Kaur will captain the women’s team.
Indian cricket squads at Asian Games 2026
Indian men's cricket team: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
Indian women's cricket team: Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Pratika Rawal, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, Gunalan Kamalini, Bharti Fulmali, Sree Charani, Renuka Thakur, Kranti Gaud, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Radha Yadav, Nandani Sharma.