Sanjay Manjrekar Confident of India Men’s and Women’s Teams Winning Gold

Sanjay Manjrekar, a member of the tournament’s men’s commentary panel, believes both Indian teams will continue to succeed on the continental arena.

Sanjay Manjrekar voiced optimism in the competition’s squads, stressing the teams’ mix of experience and emerging skill.

Cricket at the Asian Games 2026 will be held from September 17 to October 3 at Korogi Athletic Park in Aichi, Japan, with both men’s and women’s competitions being played in T20 format. India are the defending champions, having won gold medals in both categories in Hangzhou 2023.

The women’s tournament goes from September 17 to September 22, while the men’s competition begins on September 24, with the gold medal match set for October 3.

Shreyas Iyer captains the men’s squad, which includes veteran players like Jasprit Bumrah as well as young prospects Abhishek Sharma and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who will be making their Asian Games debuts.

Harmanpreet Kaur leads the women’s team, which has a strong core of players such as Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, and Richa Ghosh.

On September 18, India’s women’s team will begin their championship defense against hosts Japan in the quarterfinals. Both squads are responsible for retaining India’s dominance in Asian cricket while contending for gold medals that would count toward the country’s overall tally at the Games.

The competition provides a platform for Indian cricket to demonstrate the depth of talent developed across both the men’s and women’s games, with understandably high expectations as defending champions. It is worth noting that both India’s men’s and women’s teams are the reigning Asia Cup champions.