IND vs PAK Asian Games 2026 Final: Date, Time, Venue, Squads, Pitch Report and Preview

By:Amit Yadav Modified:

Arch-rivals India and Pakistan clash in the men’s cricket gold-medal match at the Asian Games 2026 on Saturday, 3 October 2026, at the Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin, Japan. It is their first-ever meeting in Asian Games cricket and their first encounter since India’s 61-run win at the T20 World Cup in Colombo in February 2026. Here is the complete preview: date, start time, venue, full squads, pitch report, weather and head-to-head record.

IND vs PAK Final: Date, Time and Venue

  • Match: India vs Pakistan, men’s cricket gold-medal match, Asian Games 2026
  • Date: Saturday, 3 October 2026
  • Venue: Korogi Sports Park, Nisshin, Aichi, Japan
  • Start: 10:00 AM IST / 9:30 AM PKT / 1:30 PM JST
  • Toss: 9:30 AM IST (9:00 AM PKT)
  • Format: T20

There is no reserve day: a washout would see the gold medal shared between the two teams.

Road to the Final

Both teams entered the tournament at the quarter-final stage as top seeds, and both quarter-finals were washed out — India advanced past Afghanistan and Pakistan past Hong Kong on higher seeding without a ball bowled. Each side has therefore played just one completed match in the tournament: their semi-final.

India crushed Sri Lanka in the semi-final on 1 October, posting 169/7 before bowling Sri Lanka out for just 45 — a 124-run win. Ishan Kishan led the way with an unbeaten 80 off 46 balls, supported by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s 38 off 21, while the bowling attack shared the wickets.

Pakistan beat Bangladesh by 6 wickets in a rain-reduced 13-overs-per-side semi-final. Chasing 112, Pakistan got home in 11.3 overs thanks to Abdul Samad’s unbeaten 30 off 15 balls and Hasan Nawaz’s 27 not out, after Sufyan Moqim’s three-wicket haul had restricted Bangladesh to 111/7.

India Squad

Shreyas Iyer (captain), Tilak Varma (vice-captain), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Vipraj Nigam, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Yash Thakur. Coach: VVS Laxman.

India’s original 15 was trimmed to 14: Varun Chakravarthy was ruled out with a side strain and replaced by Vipraj Nigam, while Nitish Kumar Reddy withdrew to join the ODI squad for the West Indies series.

Pakistan Squad

Sahibzada Farhan (captain), Abdul Samad (vice-captain), Usman Khan (wicket-keeper), Abrar Ahmed, Haider Ali, Saim Ayub, Ahmed Daniyal, Akif Javed, Arafat Minhas, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Saad Masood, Sufyan Moqim, Hasan Nawaz, Ali Raza, Maaz Sadaqat. Coach: Mike Hesson.

Pakistan are without several senior names — Salman Ali Agha, Shaheen Afridi and Shadab Khan are all absent — and have handed opportunities to a young group featuring four uncapped players.

Pitch Report: Korogi Sports Park

The Nisshin surface is a two-paced hybrid turf that has favoured spin throughout the tournament. Cracks open up as the match wears on, making strokeplay difficult, and the average first-innings score has been around 135–150. Captains are likely to prefer batting first — chasing has not been easy here. India’s Ravi Bishnoi and Pakistan’s Sufyan Moqim could be the most influential bowlers of the final.

Weather Report

The forecast is encouraging: partly cloudy skies in Nisshin with temperatures of 24–26°C during the match and only a 0–20% chance of rain. After four washed-out quarter-finals earlier in the week, a full 20-over contest looks likely.

India vs Pakistan Head-to-Head in T20Is

India dominate the T20I rivalry: 14 wins to Pakistan’s 3 in 17 meetings (the 2007 World T20 group game was tied and decided by a bowl-out). India have won the last six completed T20Is between the sides, including the Asia Cup 2025 final in Dubai — which India won by five wickets — and the T20 World Cup 2026 meeting in Colombo. The two have never met in Asian Games cricket before today.

Match Prediction Factors

India walk in as favourites: a near-full-strength squad, a six-match T20I winning streak, and a crushing semi-final win. But Pakistan’s young side has momentum of its own, a world-class in-form opener in captain Sahibzada Farhan, and a spin attack tailor-made for these conditions. If Pakistan’s spinners grip the surface the way they did against Bangladesh, India’s deep batting will face its sternest test of the tournament. Expect a low-scoring, tense battle for gold.