Gautam Gambhir will not be the head coach of the Indian men’s cricket team at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. Instead, the coaching duties will be taken over by VVS Laxman, Director of Cricket at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE). Laxman will be assisted by Sunil Joshi, Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Subhadeep Ghosh, according to the list of coaches released by the Sports Ministry.
This will not be Laxman’s first time coaching India at the Asian Games. He was also in charge of the men’s team at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, where India went on to win the gold medal.
Gambhir, meanwhile, will continue with the senior Indian team and will be involved in the home ODI series against the West Indies. The first ODI of the series is scheduled to be played on September 27.
The cricket competition at the 2026 Asian Games will begin on September 24, with India set to play its opening match four days later.
For the Indian women’s team, Amol Muzumdar will continue as head coach. He will be supported by bowling coach Aavishkar Salvi and fielding coach Munish Bali.
India’s women will enter the competition at the quarter-final stage, where they will face hosts Japan. The men’s team, meanwhile, will play the second-placed side from Group A, which consists of Afghanistan, Japan and Nepal.
India will be aiming to retain both its men’s and women’s Asian Games titles. Shreyas Iyer will lead the men’s team, which will also feature teenage batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Harmanpreet Kaur will captain the women’s side as India look to defend their respective gold medals.
