India won the cricket gold medal in the last Asian Games • AFP/Getty Images
The draws and groups of the Asian Games were announced on Thursday for both the men's and the women's tournaments. While the men's edition will see ten teams in contention, the women's edition will feature eight teams.The women's tournament will start with the quarter-final fixtures: vs , vs , vs and vs . The competition will run from September 17 to 22. The men's edition - from September 24 to October 1 - will have Afghanistan, Japan and Nepal in Group A and Hong Kong, Malaysia and Oman in Group B in the opening round. The top two sides from each group will proceed to the knockouts to take on the direct qualifiers.All matches will be played in Nagoya in Japan and in the T20 format.India had won the gold medal for both men and women in the 2023 Games. The had been washed out after Afghanistan played 18.2 overs and India, by virtue of being the higher-seeded team, were awarded the gold medal.In the women's event, India had beaten Sri Lanka by 19 runs .
