NAGOYA: India and Pakistan will avoid an early cricket showdown at the Asian Games, with the tournament draw ensuring that any meeting between the arch-rivals will come only in a medal match.
The Asian Games will run from September 19 to October 4, while cricket will be played from September 17 to October 3 at Paloma Mizuho Stadium in Nagoya. Both the men’s and women’s competitions will be contested in the T20 format.
In the men’s event, India and Pakistan are the top two seeds and have been placed in separate sections of the knockout draw. Both teams have received direct entry into the quarter-finals alongside Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Pakistan will compete in Quarter-final 1 and India in Quarter-final 2 on September 28, with their opponents determined by the preliminary stage.
The draw keeps the two sides apart in the semi-finals, meaning an India-Pakistan encounter is possible only in the gold-medal match or bronze-medal play-off on October 3.
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The same arrangement applies to the women’s competition.
India, the top seeds, will face Japan in their quarter-final and could meet Bangladesh or Hong Kong, China, in the semi-final. Pakistan will take on Thailand, with Sri Lanka or Malaysia awaiting them should they reach the last four.
Consequently, the women’s teams can also meet only in the final or bronze-medal contest, both scheduled for September 22.
India have named Shreyas Iyer as captain of their men’s team, while Harmanpreet Kaur will lead the women’s side.
For Pakistan and India, therefore, any meeting in Nagoya would carry considerably more than traditional rivalry — a place on the Asian Games podium would be directly at stake.
