India captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opted to bat in the One-off T20I, which is taking place at Sano International Cricket Ground, Sano, Kanto. Notably, this will be a 5-over-per-side game as the match was delayed due to a wet outfield. This is India and Japan's last assignment before the Asian Games 2026.

Notably, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who missed out on the T20I series against Afghanistan, has again been ignored by the side. Apart from Sooryavanshi, pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah also missed out from the playing XI to manage the workload.

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Captains at toss

Kendel Kadowaki-Fleming (Japan captain): We probably would have bowled. I was happy either way. It is pure excitement, it is starting to sink now and hopefully we can put on a show. There is quite a few Indian supporters here. We are extremely grateful to everyone who has made this game happen. It is amazing, reining world champions coming here, we wouldn't have believed it a few years ago.

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Shreyas Iyer (India captain): We want to bat first, and obviously it's a big occasion, and we know the friendship you mentioned, 75 years of friendship. So it's going to be an exciting one, and we wanted to explore the conditions as well. I never envisioned that I would be coming to Japan and captaining one day. I know the baseball is quite big over here, but today, yeah, I'm standing right here. The crowd is decent, there are a lot of supporters, so it's important that we give them something back, and also the crowd watching us from back home. You know, it's important that this match happened, and it's happening today. So looking forward for an exciting one. [What are the things you just need to crease out ahead of that Asian Games campaign?] It's important that we know the conditions and we are aware of what's happening around us. We know that this is actually going to be the conditions that are going to be offered in the Asian Games as well. We don't know how the pitches are over there, but definitely this game, this particular game, is going to be of a great practice for us heading into that, and yeah, just waiting for that moment to arrive.

India vs Japan playing XIs

Japan (Playing XI): Lachlan Yamamoto-Lake, Reo Sakurano-Thomas, Kendel Kadowaki-Fleming(c), Benjamin Ito-Davis, Wataru Miyauchi, Alexander Shirai-Patmore(w), Charlie Hara-Hinze, Ibrahim Takahashi, Declan Suzuki-McComb, Makoto Taniyama, Shoma Sugaya-Slater.

India (Playing XI): Sanju Samson(w), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer(c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Yash Thakur, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh