Harmanpreet Kaur wins toss, India elects to bowl against Japan at Asian Games

On September 18, 2026 at Nisshin, India captain Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and chose to bowl first against Japan in the Asian Games women's cricket quarter-final, with play now under way.

Both teams completed pre-match formalities at Nisshin, where Kimigayo and Jana Gana Mana were played and the umpires walked out before the sides took their positions; Japan opened with Haruna Iwasaki and Ayaka Kato Stafford while Kranti Gaud took the new ball for India. In a pre-match conversation translated from Hindi, Richa Ghosh said, "it feels great to be playing in Japan for the first time," added that "confidence is sky-high after their Asia Cup triumph," and described the team's batting plan as a "'see the ball, hit the ball' approach." Ghosh also noted there had been some rain around Nisshin and that the side had planned accordingly.

Kranti Gaud's opening over began with a series of tight deliveries to Haruna Iwasaki: an early ball played toward mid-off resulted in no run, she was beaten on a couple of occasions, and there was a swing-and-miss; at one point Iwasaki got on top of the bounce and punched a delivery through the covers, and on another ball she hung back to attempt a cut but was beaten as the ball seamed away.

Smriti Mandhana heads India's batting order and is approaching a personal milestone — she needs 8 more runs to overtake Suzie Bates (4758 runs) for the most runs in Women's T20Is, having added a couple of milestones during the recent Asia Cup.

India Women (Playing XI) are: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Richa Ghosh (WK), G Kamalini, Bharti Fulmali, Deepti Sharma, Kranti Gaud, Shreyanka Patil, Sree Charani and Nandani Sharma. Japan Women (Playing XI) are: Haruna Iwasaki, Erika Oda, Hinase Goto, Akari Nishimura (WK), Mai Yanagida (C), Ayaka Kato Stafford, Ahilya Chandel, Shimako Kato, Ayumi Fujikawa, Erika Toguchi-Quinn and Nonoha Yasumoto.

Additional squad information provided lists India as: Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana (Vice-Captain), Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (WK), G Kamalini (WK), Shreyanka Patil, Bharti Fulmali, Shree Charani, Renuka Thakur, Kranti Gaud, Arundhati Reddy, Radha Yadav, Nandni Sharma. Japan's wider squad is listed as: Mai Yanagida (c), Erika Oda (vc), Ahilya Chandel, Ayumi Fujikawa, Hinase Goto, Haruna Iwasaki, Akari Nishimura (wk), Shimako Kato, Ayaka Kato-Stafford, Elena Kusuda-Nairn, Nonoha Yasumoto, Meg Ogawa, Kurumi Ota, Seika Sumi, Erika Toguchi-Quinn.

This fixture is the fourth quarter-final of the Asian Games women's cricket tournament at Nisshin; play is in progress with Japan batting against India following the toss.