India face Sri Lanka in Asian Games semi-final for a spot in the gold-medal match
India will meet Sri Lanka in the Asian Games men's cricket semi-final in Japan on Thursday as they chase a place in the gold-medal match.
India arrive in Japan with a strong 2026 T20I record, having won 19 of 27 matches this year and posting a win-loss ratio of 2.375, while Sri Lanka have won five of their 18 T20Is in 2026, a win-loss ratio of 0.384 — the lowest among Full Member teams. India are the defending champions and have included established players such as Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan in their squad for the Games. Sri Lanka’s 15-member group is comparatively inexperienced: four uncapped players, six players with fewer than 10 T20Is and captain Sahan Arachchige with only one T20I cap from the 2023 Asian Games. The Sri Lankan side has not played any cricket since arriving in Japan.
India face a selection decision with Jasprit Bumrah available after being rested for the one-off T20I against Japan; Arshdeep Singh and Yash Thakur were used as the quicks in that match. Ravi Bishnoi, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar formed the lead spin attack against Japan, and Bumrah’s return will force a choice over the final combination. Teenage batter Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who is part of India’s squad in Japan, is under consideration for an appearance but Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson are seen as having little reason to be dropped.
Washington Sundar returned from a two-month injury absence in the Japan T20I, bowling two overs and taking two wickets while not getting a chance to bat. The article notes Washington’s recent form across formats: he scored an unbeaten 52 in an ODI to help India secure their first win of their UK tour, and he took four wickets in the Test against Afghanistan where he contributed another unbeaten 52.
Sri Lanka’s plans include the return of Niroshan Dickwella to the T20I setup after last playing in the format in 2021. Dickwella’s Lanka Premier League numbers from a few months ago were 110 runs in six innings at an average of 18.33 and a strike rate of 142.85, and he recently scored 80 off 115 balls in the first Test against India. Dickwella made his T20I debut against India in 2016 and last met India in a T20I in December 2017, a period noted in the article as when MS Dhoni was still playing and Rohit Sharma had just taken over as T20I captain; Ashen Bandara is another of Sri Lanka’s more recognisable names.
Weather has repeatedly disrupted the men’s cricket competition in Nisshin, with six matches washed out and five of those abandoned without a toss, and the schedule affected by persistent rain. Shreyas Iyer described the conditions as a "torrential downpour." With only four matches remaining in the tournament and all of them determining the medal positions, the semi-final carries direct stakes for both sides.
The winner of Thursday’s semi-final will advance to contest the gold-medal match, leaving both India and Sri Lanka to field their chosen XIs under limited time and amid the compressed remaining schedule.
