India's men's cricket team now knows its opponent for the 2026 Asian Games: Afghanistan, confirmed after a rain-affected washout in the Nepal-Japan fixture settled the final Group A placings on Saturday. Shreyas Iyer's side had been waiting on that result since India, as a seeded team, received a direct bye into the quarter-finals against the Group A runner-up.
Nepal had posted 149 for 4 in 15 overs after being put in to bat against Japan at the Kōrogi Sports Park in Nisshin, with quick unbeaten half-centuries from Sundeep Jora and Lokesh Bam. Persistent rain then prevented Japan from starting their chase, and the match was declared a no-result. That outcome was enough to confirm Nepal as Group A winners and send Afghanistan through as runner-up, eliminating Japan from the tournament in the process.
With Group A settled, all four quarter-finals are now locked in: India face Afghanistan on September 28, followed by Pakistan against Hong Kong the same day. Sri Lanka play Group A winners Nepal on September 29, and Bangladesh meet Group B's Malaysia to close out the round the same day.
Afghanistan arrive as a side capable of testing any seeded team in a straight-knockout format — a lesson India's senior team has already learned in bilateral T20Is against them this year. Shreyas Iyer's squad, built around Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Jasprit Bumrah and the uncapped Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, will go in as clear favourites on paper, but the format leaves no room for a slow start against an opponent with genuine matchwinners across both bat and ball.
India are the defending men's Asian Games champions after their 2023 Hangzhou gold, and confirmation of the Afghanistan tie removes the last piece of pre-tournament uncertainty around their campaign. With the women's team having already retained their own Asian Games title in Japan earlier this month, a strong showing from the men's side would round out a dominant Games for Indian cricket heading into the knockout's business end on October 3.
Live scores from the India-Afghanistan quarter-final and the rest of the Asian Games draw are available on SportGod's live matches page, with AI-powered previews on SportGod's predictions page and more tournament coverage on SportGod's blog.
Group A standings, the washout details and the full quarter-final draw are verified against same-day tournament reporting, current as of September 26, 2026.
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