Following a standout performance in the Indian Premier League 2026 (IPL 2026), Vaibhav Sooryvanshi is on the verge of making his International debut. The BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) has included him in a 30-man shortlist submitted to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) for the Asian Games 2026 cricket event.
Notably absent from this list are India’s T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav and ODI and Test captain Shubman Gill. The BCCI is expected to select two different T20I teams since the Asian Games will coincide with India’s home series against the West Indies.
The men’s cricket event at the Asian Games is scheduled from September 24 to October 3, while the West Indies series, which features three ODIs and five T20Is, will be held from September 27 to October 17.
With Gill set to lead the ODI team, he will not be part of the Asian Games lineup. Reports suggest that Suryakumar Yadav is not being considered for the Olympic Games in 2028 or the T20 World Cup scheduled that same year.
Gaikwad and Bumrah also included
In light of their absence, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, and Tilak Varma are seen as potential leaders for the team. Jasprit Bumrah is also included in the shortlist, while Harshit Rana is part of the list despite undergoing rehabilitation after knee surgery.
Additionally, Ruturaj Gaikwad made the roster despite a lackluster IPL 2026 performance. He previously guided India to a gold medal in the 2023 Asian Games held in Hangzhou.
India’s full list submitted to IOA: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryvanshi, Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Ayush Badoni, Harsh Dubey, Dhruv Jurel, Khaleel Ahmed, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravi Bishnoi, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shivam Dube, Vipraj Nigam, Harshit Rana, Yash Thakur, Washington Sundar.