India Retain Harmanpreet As Captain For Asiad Despite Underwhelming WC

New Delhi : Despite exiting the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in England earlier than expected on Tuesday, Harmanpreet Kaur remained captain of the largely predictable 15-man India squad for this year’s Asian Games in Japan. The Asian Games are scheduled to be held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, from September 19 to October 4. The Indian team’s World Cup campaign ended on Sunday after losing to Australia in the group stage.

The team will enter the Asian Games as the defending champions, having won the gold medal in the previous edition of the event held in Hangzhou, China, in 2023.

In the Asian Games, both men’s and women’s cricket matches are played in T20 format.

Smriti Mandhana will continue to be Harmanpreet’s assistant. Harmanpreet, 37, with whom India won the women’s ODI World Cup last year, has been facing criticism for her lackluster performance in England.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Yastika Bhatia is the only player left out of the World Cup squad and G Kamalini has been sidelined in her place.

All-rounder Shreyanka Patil, who suffered an ankle injury midway through the World Cup, has been included in the squad but her availability will be subject to fitness clearance.

While Harmanpreet will be supported by Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues and Richa Ghosh in the batting line-up, the bowling responsibilities will largely be handled by Deepti Sharma, Renuka Singh, Shree Charani, Arundhati Reddy and Nandni Sharma.

During an uneven World Cup campaign, the Indians have fallen well short of expectations. They had comfortable wins against relatively weaker Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Netherlands, but losses against South Africa and Australia dashed their hopes.

Despite being eliminated from the group stage, the team qualified for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics as the highest-placed Asian team in the competition.

India’s 2026 Asian Games squad:

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Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana (Vice-Captain), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (WK), G Kamalini (WK), Bharti Fulmali, Sree Charani, Renuka Thakur, Kranti Gaud, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Radha Yadav, Nandni Sharma.