India to Play Afghanistan in Three T20Is Ahead of Asian Games

India will play a three-match T20I series against Afghanistan in September as part of preparations for the 2026 Asian Games, with the matches set to be hosted by Afghanistan in New Delhi.

According to ESPNcricinfo, the Arun Jaitley Stadium will stage the games on September 13, 15 and 17, just days before the men’s cricket competition at the Asian Games begins on September 24 in Japan.

Although Afghanistan have previously hosted international teams in India at venues such as Dehradun, Greater Noida and Lucknow, this will be the first time they will host India on Indian soil. Afghanistan continue to play home matches abroad due to the lack of suitable international cricket infrastructure in the country.

The series comes after Afghanistan toured India in June for one Test and three ODIs, with the hosts winning all four matches. However, the tour drew criticism because of the extreme summer heat in which the fixtures were played.

India will head into the series after a challenging white-ball campaign, having suffered T20I defeats in Ireland and England before losing the ODI series against England despite taking an early lead.

The Afghanistan T20Is are expected to serve as crucial match practice ahead of the Asian Games, where India have named a strong squad led by Shreyas Iyer.

India’s squad for the 2026 Asian Games: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma (vice-captain), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Jasprit Bumrah.