India's men's cricket team reached the semi-finals of the Asian Games 2026 on Monday after their quarter-final against Afghanistan at Kōrogi Sports Park in Nisshin, Japan, was abandoned without a single ball being bowled because of persistent rain and a waterlogged outfield.
The match was called off just 16 minutes before the scheduled toss, with continuous downpours making play impossible throughout the day at the venue near Nagoya.
Why did India go through without playing?
India reached the semis by virtue of being the better-seeded team after the quarter-final at Karogi Athletic Park was abandoned due to rain, with the Asian Games rules stating that if a knockout match is abandoned, the better-seeded team based on the ICC T20I rankings progresses. India are currently the world No. 1 T20I team while Afghanistan sit 10th.
The rule left no room for ambiguity given the gap between the two sides in the rankings, and India were confirmed as semi-finalists without stepping onto the field.
An eerily familiar script for Afghanistan
Afghanistan have now ended a second successive Asian Games men's tournament with a washout against India, having taken the silver medal in Hangzhou in 2023 after their final against higher-seeded India was washed out following 18.2 overs of the first innings.
The head-to-head record between the two sides remains heavily in India's favour. Afghanistan are yet to beat India in a T20I match, with India having won 11 of the 13 meetings between the two sides while two matches — both at the Asian Games — have ended with no result.
Pakistan suffer the same fate
India were not the only side to benefit from the weather on a miserable day for cricket in Nisshin. Earlier in the day, the other Asian Games cricket quarter-final between Pakistan and Hong Kong China was also abandoned due to heavy rain.
Pakistan progressed under the same ranking-based rule, meaning two of the four men's quarter-finals were decided without either fixture producing a ball bowled — an unusual quirk of a tournament schedule that has been repeatedly disrupted by wet weather in Aichi Prefecture.
What comes next for India
India will now face either Sri Lanka or Nepal in the semi-finals of the men's cricket competition, with that quarter-final between the two sides yet to be completed at the time of writing. Shreyas Iyer is leading the Indian side, with Tilak Varma serving as vice-captain, as the squad continues its bid to defend the gold medal won in Hangzhou four years ago.
India's title defence in the men's competition mirrors the success already enjoyed by the country's women's team at the same Games. The women's Indian cricket team has already successfully defended its Asian Games title in Aichi-Nagoya, with Harmanpreet Kaur-led India defeating Sri Lanka by 147 runs in the final to claim the gold medal.
For Afghanistan, the abandonment brings a frustrating early exit from a tournament in which the squad had hoped to go further after their agonising near-miss in 2023. The washout also draws fresh attention to the readiness of the Kōrogi Sports Park venue, a converted baseball facility that had already faced scrutiny over its playing conditions before the Games began.
With the men's tournament running until 3 October, organisers will be hoping for a change in the weather pattern that has repeatedly disrupted play in Nisshin throughout the cricket schedule, having already affected fixtures in both the women's and men's events since the competition began on 17 September.
A frustrating pattern of weather disruption
The washout continues a theme that has defined much of the cricket at these Games. Persistent rain in the region has already forced the reduction or abandonment of several matches during the group and knockout stages, leaving organisers with little choice but to fall back on the pre-agreed ranking-based tiebreaker to keep the knockout bracket moving.
India's players will now have an unexpected few days without match action before their semi-final, a scenario that could work either for or against a squad that had been building momentum through the tournament's earlier stages.