Asian Games 2026 opening ceremony: How and when to watch in India
Manu Bhaker and Tajinderpal Singh Toor will carry the Indian flag at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, on Saturday, September 19. The pair were named India's flag-bearers on Friday.
The 20th edition of the Asian Games will feature athletes from 45 countries and regions competing across 43 sports, with Japan hosting for a third time after Tokyo in 1958 and Hiroshima in 1994. A 158-member Indian contingent is slated to take part in the opening ceremony, while around 500 Indian athletes are entered across 35 sports at the Games.
The opening ceremony will be held on Saturday, September 19, and is scheduled from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM local time in Japan (JST). That window corresponds to 2:30 PM to 4:30 PM India Standard Time (IST).
In India the ceremony will be televised live on Sony Sports 1 and Sony Sports 5. Regional-language coverage will be available on Sony Sports 3 in Hindi and on Sony Sports 4 in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.
The opening ceremony will also be available for live streaming on SonyLIV through its app and website in India. Manu Bhaker and Tajinderpal Singh Toor were officially named as India's flag-bearers for the ceremony.
Bhaker made history at the Paris 2024 Olympics by becoming the first athlete from independent India to win two medals at a single edition of the Games. Toor is a two-time Asian Games champion in men's shot put, having won gold at the 2018 Jakarta and 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, and will travel to Nagoya from his training base at the University of Tsukuba near Tokyo to attend the ceremony.
Athletics provides India's largest contingent with more than 75 athletes, and the Indian squad includes leading names such as PV Sindhu, Mirabai Chanu, Manu Bhaker, Aman Sehrawat and Lovlina Borgohain. At the previous Asian Games in Hangzhou, athletics contributed 29 medals to India's tally, including six gold, while shooting produced 22 medals, including seven gold.
India will aim to improve on its record performance at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023, where it won 107 medals, including 28 gold.