VVS Laxman to coach Indian men at Asian Games 2026
What's the story
Director of Cricket at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence (CoE), VVS Laxman, will coach the Indian men's cricket team at the upcoming Asian Games 2026. The tournament will take place in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, later this month. Laxman had previously coached the Indian men's team to a gold medal victory at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. The list of coaches was released by the Sports Ministry on Thursday.
Coaching staff
List of coaches for men's team
For the 2026 Asian Games, Laxman will be assisted by Sunil Joshi, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, and Subhadeep Ghosh.
Regular head coach Gautam Gambhir will not be part of this assignment as he will be with the senior team for a home ODI series against West Indies, starting September 27. The ODI leg will be followed by five T20Is.
Women's squad
Indian women's team
Amol Muzumdar will continue as the head coach of the Indian women's team for the Asian Games. He will be assisted by bowling coach Aavishkar Salvi and fielding coach Munish Bali.
The Indian women's team will enter the competition at the quarterfinal stage and face Japan.
Meanwhile, the men's side will take on the second-placed side from Group A, comprising Afghanistan, Japan and Nepal.
Gold medal quest
Defending champions India in action
Both the Indian men's and women's cricket teams will defend their titles at the Asian Games 2026.
The men's team, led by Shreyas Iyer, features teenage batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
The women's team will be captained by Harmanpreet Kaur.
The women's cricket competition will begin on September 17 and the men's competition a week later.
Squads
A look at India's squads
India Women: Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Pratika Rawal, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, G Kamalini, Bharti Fulmali, Sree Charani, Renuka Singh, Kranti Gaud, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Radha Yadav, and Nandni Sharma.
India Men: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Tilak Varma, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Shivam Dube, Ishan Kishan, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Arshdeep Singh, Washington Sundar, and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.