Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, 15, and Shruti Vora, 55, named India’s youngest and oldest athletes for Asian Games 2026
India’s youngest and oldest competitors at the Asian Games 2026 are 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and 55-year-old Shruti Vora, with the Games set to open on September 19 in Aichi Prefecture and Nagoya, Japan.
India will target another strong outing across multiple disciplines, aiming to improve on its 109-medal haul from the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games; the delegation mixes seasoned multi-time participants and first-time Asian Games athletes.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi burst into public view during the 2025 Indian Premier League, making his debut for the Rajasthan Royals at 14 and becoming the youngest player to feature in the tournament; he launched his first delivery faced for a six and later produced a 35-ball century, described as the second-fastest in IPL history and marking him as the youngest centurion in T20 cricket.
Since his IPL breakthrough, Sooryavanshi helped India win the 2026 Under-19 Men’s Cricket World Cup and delivered a prolific IPL 2026 campaign that earned him multiple honours, including the Orange Cap for the season’s leading run-scorer; he made his senior Team India T20I debut in England in July and has a recorded highest score of 81, and he is expected to play an important role in India’s bid to defend the gold medal won at Hangzhou 2022.
Shruti Vora, from Kolkata, West Bengal, has ridden since she was three years old and took up competitive equestrianism in 2009; she trained in Europe under Jitendarjit Singh Ahluwalia and was inspired by German equestrian and Olympic medallist Reiner Klimke, briefly training under him, and has also trained under Anne Jensen-Van Olst and Patrick Le Rolland.
Vora competed at the 2010 and 2014 Asian Games and in 2022 featured at the FEI World Championships alongside Anush Agarwalla, becoming one of the first Indian riders to compete in individual dressage at that event; she is yet to win an Asian Games medal but, riding her horse Magnanimous, secured three silver medals at the 2025 Asian Championships in Pattaya in the individual, individual freestyle and team events.
The Asian Games begin on September 19 in Aichi Prefecture and Nagoya, Japan, and India will send a 503-strong delegation — 503 athletes (Men: 269, Women: 234) — across 36 sports disciplines.
