How Indian Cricket Teams Earned Direct Quarterfinal Entry At Asian Games 2023 – Explained

New Delhi: The Indian cricket teams will be taking part at the Asian Games for the first time with both men and women taking part in the 2023 edition that was originally scheduled to be held the previous year.

Hangzhou in China is hosting the Asian Games 2023 and will be played from September 19 to October 8. The men’s and women’s cricket competition will be played at the Zhejiang University of Technology Pingfeng field and in T20I format.

While the men’s competition is scheduled from September 28 to October 8, the women will play their competition from September 19 to 28. A total of 14 teams are participating in the women’s tournament while the there are 18 teams in the men’s competition.

Ruturaj Gaikwad will be leading second-string young Indian men at the Asian Games while Harmanpreet Kaur has been named as the women’s captain. However, Harmanpreet won’t be available for the first two games as she has been suspended by the ICC recently.

India Men & Women To Play From Quarterfinals

Interestingly, both Indian men and women’s teams will play directly from the knockouts. But why so? According to the tournament rules, the top four teams in the ICC T20I rankings in the Asian region as of June 1, 2023 have been awarded the direct quarterfinal spots.

In the men’s tournament, Pakistan, Bangaldesh and Sri Lanka are the other seeded teams apart from India. The Ruturaj Gaikwad-led side will play their quarterfinal on October 5 against either Afghanistan or China.

As far as women’s competition is concerned, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan are the other quarterfinalists besides India. With no Harmanpreet Kaur in the quarterfinal, Smriti Mandhana will be leading India in her absence. India will play either Hong Kong or China or Nepal or Singapore in the women’s quarterfinal.

This is the second time the Indian cricket team will be competing at a multi-sport event. India fielded its men’s team led by Ajay Jadeja at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and finished third in the group stage. India won just one game in Group B that also had Antigua and Barbuda, Australia and Canada. The matches were played in 50-over format.

Cricket At Asian Games

This is the third time cricket is being played as the Asian Games with the previous two editions being held in 2010 (Guangzhou) and 2014 (Incheon). In the women’s tournament, Pakistan won both the editions with Bangladesh finishing runners-up on both the occasions. Bangladesh (2010) and Sri Lanka (2014) have won the men’s tournament one time each. Afghanistan were runners-up on both occasions.