Cricket now

Korogi Athletic Park (PC: RevSportz) As you enter Korogi Athletic Park, the venue for cricket at the Asian Games, it feels more like a park than a sporting venue, with thousands of trees surrounding the ground. The first impression is that it is a decent venue that could host Ranji Trophy matches. Essentially, it is a baseball ground that has been converted into a cricket stadium. How big is the ground? The ground is big enough to meet international cricket standards, but the boundaries are short, measuring 60 yards from the centre of the wicket in every direction. One reason for the short boundaries is that the surface near the players’ dugouts is not completely flat. Nagoya experienced 18 consecutive days of rain before the Asian Games, the heaviest rainfall in 136 years. As a result, the minimum boundary distance of 60 yards was approved. The boundary length for the men’s T20 event has not yet been decided. In the women’s final, India posted a massive 216/3, h...

  Smriti_Mandhana (PC: BCCI Women/X) Trisha Ghosal There are certain narratives in sport that become bigger than the numbers that created them. Smriti Mandhana and knockouts is one of them. For years, every time India reached a semi-final or final, the conversation would inevitably return to the same question: can Mandhana finally produce the innings that changes the game when the stakes are at their highest? It wasn’t an entirely manufactured criticism. For a significant period of her career, Mandhana’s returns in major knockout matches did not match the extraordinary standards she had set during league phases and bilateral cricket. She could dominate attacks for fun, but when India entered the business end of a tournament, the big innings often remained elusive. That is where the narrative took root. And once a narrative takes hold in sport, it can be remarkably difficult to dislodge. One failure becomes evidence, another failure becomes confirmation, and every ...

Handscomb is in selectors’ radar for the next year’s Border Gavaskar Trophy. (PC: BCCI) Australia A have announced their playing XI for the four-day game against India A, which starts on 22 September in Puducherry. Peter Handscomb will lead the team. According to CODE Sports, Nathan McSweeney has been a regular captain for Australia A and led the side in their most recent four-day fixture against the England Lions in December 2025. He has, however, reportedly been replaced as captain so that he can concentrate on his batting, with the No. 3 position in Australia’s Test side still open after Marnus Labuschagne’s dip in form. The two red-ball matches against India A will serve as an audition for the players to stake their claim for the five-match Test series between India and Australia next year. Handscomb, who has travelled with the senior team on two occasions in the last two Test tours, is on the selectors’ radar for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2026-27. Among the Test p...

Salman is nursing a left-hand injury. (PC: ICC) Mohammad Wasim Jr has been drafted into Pakistan’s squad as a replacement for Salman Mirza for the 2026 Asian Games. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) confirmed the development on Sunday, September 20. According to the PCB media release, Salman has been sidelined due to a fracture in his left thumb, which will keep him out of action until the first week of next month. “Fast bowler Mohammad Wasim Jnr replaced Mohammad Salman Mirza in the squad after the latter was sidelined from the event due to a fracture in his left thumb,” said the PCB release. “Salman is currently undergoing rehabilitation and is expected to regain complete fitness in the first week of October.” Wasim has played 34 T20Is and is one of the more seasoned players in the second-string squad, which will be led by Sahibzada Farhan. The squad was summoned to assemble at Karachi’s Hanif Mohammad High-Performance Centre on Sunday. Under head coach Mike Hesson, the team will...

Japan vs India (PC: Japan Cricket) From ‘ping-pong diplomacy’ to ‘cricket diplomacy’, there is a common factor – Nagoya. The Japanese city, which is currently hosting the Asian Games, played host to the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships. It was the height of the Cold War, with the United States and China in opposite camps. Richard Nixon’s America embraced capitalism and liberalism, while Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai’s ‘Red China’ was behind the ‘Iron Curtain’ and very much part of the Communist bloc. Japan Cricket and BCCI (PC: Japan Cricket) Against this backdrop, Glenn Cowan, a young US table tennis player, ‘transgressed’. By mistake, he boarded the Chinese national team bus. All hell could have broken loose, but legendary Chinese table tennis player Zhuang Zedong welcomed Cowan with a silk-woven portrait. The Chinese leadership then invited the US team to visit China. The United States responded by lifting its trade ban on China, and a year later, Nixon was there, initiating th...

India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Bangladesh in Asian Games 2026 (PC: BCCI Women, BCB, ACC) India and Sri Lanka have secured themselves a medal in the Women’s cricket competition at the Asian Games and will now face each other in the final, scheduled for September 22. Before that, Bangladesh and Pakistan will lock horns in Nisshin in the Bronze medal match. India vs Sri Lanka – Final Which colour of medal India or Sri Lanka eventually win will be decided at Korogi Sports Park. It is a repeat of the recent Women’s Asia Cup final and also the 2022 Asian Games Women’s cricket final. On both occasions, the Women in Blue registered convincing wins. So, once again, it will be a challenging test for Chamari Athapaththu and Co. Looking at their respective semi-final performances, India thrashed Bangladesh by 114 runs, with Shafali Verma making the headlines with a record-breaking century to become the first-ever women’s cricketer to score a hundred at the Asian Games. With the ball, India’s...