Nepal beat Afghanistan on Friday and jumped to the top of the table, setting up a clash against Sri Lanka at the Asian Games. The Indian men’s cricket team will face Afghanistan in the quarter-final at the Asian Games after the latter finished second in Group A. The contest between Afghanistan and Nepal was washed out due to rain on Saturday, and hence Nepal finished at the top of the standings.
The gold medal match for the Asian Games is scheduled for Saturday, October 3. In the last Asian Games, India won the gold medal under the captaincy of Ruturaj Gaikwad. India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh attained direct qualification for the quarter-finals. Among all the participating teams, only India and Bangladesh have named full-strength squads, and the team captained by Shreyas Iyer is the favourite for the gold. At that time, the Men in Blue sent a second-string squad, but the other teams were no match for India. Tilak Varma would be serving as Shreyas’ deputy in the Asian Games, and the Indian squad comprises the likes of Jasprit Bumrah , Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Speaking of Pakistan, the Green Shirts would be led by Sahibzada Farhan; however, the team doesn’t have Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf or Naseem Shah. The bronze medal match would also be played on the same day, preceding the final. India and Pakistan can only meet in either the bronze-medal or gold-medal match, and there’s no chance of these two teams meeting in the semi-final.
