Team India's Full Cricket Schedule For 2026

[deathmonger]

On 4/11/2026 at 1:17 PM, Gollum said:

Hearing we will play 3 T20Is against Afghans in UAE in September or something. Asian Games also there, have to send a good enough team to win gold there....no matter what, we must finish 4th in that event, behind China, Japan, South Korea, and ahead of the likes of Iran, Uzb, Kaz, North Korea, Malaysia, Chinese Taipei etc. Cricket+hockey mein 3 gold chahiye.....tough to see us win gold in women's hockey, Chinese have taken their game to another level. 

Ye to ho jayaega. Last time bhi hua tha.

 

Goal should be to eventually get to no 2 by say 2040 and then no 1 in the future.

[Gollum]

29 minutes ago, deathmonger said:

Ye to ho jayaega. Last time bhi hua tha.

 

Goal should be to eventually get to no 2 by say 2040 and then no 1 in the future.

Bro, first we need to be a consistent 4 and open a big gap with the rest of the field. Lagatar 3-4 AG mein hold that position and then make a move on the big 3. 

[deathmonger]

1 minute ago, Gollum said:

Bro, first we need to be a consistent 4 and open a big gap with the rest of the field. Lagatar 3-4 AG mein hold that position and then make a move on the big 3. 

Don't think going below 4. The gap will grow and grow.

 

China is a big dog but Korea/Japan are aging and their population is declining. Should ideally overtake them with our population and economic growth by 2040s.

 

China is for the far future post mid century when both countries are rich but China is older and has like 500-600 million less people.

 

Like I always say - performance is a byproduct of income.

 

Let's come back to it in September.

[deathmonger]

On 4/11/2026 at 1:17 PM, Gollum said:

Hearing we will play 3 T20Is against Afghans in UAE in September or something. Asian Games also there, have to send a good enough team to win gold there....no matter what, we must finish 4th in that event, behind China, Japan, South Korea, and ahead of the likes of Iran, Uzb, Kaz, North Korea, Malaysia, Chinese Taipei etc. Cricket+hockey mein 3 gold chahiye.....tough to see us win gold in women's hockey, Chinese have taken their game to another level. 

On that note the Asian Games team can be insane even if you are not taking regulars in any format

 

Suryavanshi

Arya

Prabhsimran

Parag

...

...

Mayank Yadav

Bishnoi

 

If you take guys from the test/odi teams not in the first T20 team than Jaiswal, Jurel, Sundar etc too.

Edited April 13 by deathmonger

[Gollum]

7 hours ago, deathmonger said:

Don't think going below 4. The gap will grow and grow.

No room for complacency. We finished 8th in 2018, 2014. 

7 hours ago, deathmonger said:

 

China is a big dog but Korea/Japan are aging and their population is declining. Should ideally overtake them with our population and economic growth by 2040s.

Let us see. Gap is still too big. We may eventually edge them in AG, but not Olympics (esp. Japan). 

7 hours ago, deathmonger said:

 

China is for the far future post mid century when both countries are rich but China is older and has like 500-600 million less people.

 

Like I always say - performance is a byproduct of income.

 

Let's come back to it in September.

China operates at a different level. We have as much chance of competing at their level as finding our way to another galaxy by the middle of the century. 14 year old girl swimmers there are setting better lap times than our senior men's national champs. 

 

We aren't doing enough to develop a sports culture. On top of that, insanity by our politicians to ban meat, fish, heck even eggs in mid day meals, and this nonsense is happening even in tribal areas. Protein deficiency and sporting performance don't go hand in hand. Also about time we come out of this mindset of comparing ourseleves with other South Asian countries to feel better about ourselves. 

Edited April 13 by Gollum

[Gollum]

3 hours ago, deathmonger said:

On that note the Asian Games team can be insane even if you are not taking regulars in any format

 

Suryavanshi

Arya

Prabhsimran

Parag

...

...

Mayank Yadav

Bishnoi

 

If you take guys from the test/odi teams not in the first T20 team than Jaiswal, Jurel, Sundar etc too.

Anything less than double gold in AG, and BCCI babus should be whipped in public. With the talent we have, absolutely no excuse. 

[deathmonger]

8 minutes ago, Gollum said:

No room for complacency. We finished 8th in 2018, 2014. 

Let us see. Gap is still too big. We may eventually edge them in AG, but not Olympics (esp. Japan). 

China operates at a different level. We have as much chance of competing at their level as finding our way to another galaxy by the middle of the century. 14 year old girl swimmers there are setting better lap times than our senior men's national champs. 

 

We aren't doing enough to develop a sports culture. On top of that, insanity by our politicians to ban meat, fish, heck even eggs in mid day meals, and this nonsense is happening even in tribal areas. Protein deficiency and sporting performance don't go hand in hand. Also about time we come out of this mindset of comparing ourseleves with other South Asian countries to feel better about ourselves. 

Yup, both are world class in their sports which we aren't (minus cricket).

 

Asian Games should be doable.

 

China I'm saying is because they are aging and facing population decline but yeah far far later in the future. Japan/Korea much easier.

[Gollum]

17 minutes ago, deathmonger said:

Yup, both are world class in their sports which we aren't (minus cricket).

Asian Games should be doable.

Yeah, Japan, South Korea (even Iran, Uzb to some extent) are so dominant in sports where they are good at, world's best in fact (even Uzb won 8 gold medals in Paris, sweeping men's boxing events). That will always work in their favor in Olympics. But in AG we can surpass them because we are good in many disciplines. 

17 minutes ago, deathmonger said:

China I'm saying is because they are aging and facing population decline but yeah far far later in the future. Japan/Korea much easier.

Japan is also tough, They are an absolute powerhouse in Olympics, often finishing in top 10. Just checked that they have won 642 medals, including 211 golds in Olympics history. That is as good as Australia's record. Japan won 27 golds in Tokyo, 20 in Paris. We have to be in a position to win at least 60-70 medals to surpass them, very tough. Even best case secnario, I see us hitting a ceiling of 25-30 odd medals mid century, perhaps 6-7 golds....unless we find some events where we can completely dominate (like Japan who won 8 gold medals in wrestling in Paris, or South Koreans with their archery sweep). 

 

China very tough man. Even if their population reduces to 600 million, they will still have the highest youth population with first world living standards. And their training facilities will always be world class, CCP looks at these games as part of their propaganda showing them as superior to US/West (same modus operandi as USSR). And what can you do against a country which kidnaps 4 year olds from parents and trains them in gymnastics, swimming, diving from that age, running military style camps for little kids? Here parents discourage talented kids from playing sports, aur udhar the state owns their prodigies, leaving parents with no say. 

Edited April 13 by Gollum

[deathmonger]

6 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Yeah, Japan, South Korea (even Iran, Uzb to some extent) are so dominant in sports where they are good at, world's best in fact (even Uzb won 8 gold medals in Paris, sweeping men's boxing events). That will always work in their favor in Olympics. But in AG we can surpass them because we are good in many disciplines. 

Japan is also tough, They are an absolute powerhouse in Olympics, often finishing in top 10. Just checked that they have won 642 medals, including 211 golds in Olympics history. That is as good as Australia's record. Japan won 27 golds in Tokyo, 20 in Paris. We have to be in a position to win at least 60-70 medals to surpass them, very tough.

 

China very tough man. Even if their population reduces to 600 million, they will still have the highest youth population with first world living standards. And their training facilities will always be world class, CCP looks at these games as part of their propaganda showing them as superior to US/West (same modus operandi as USSR). And what can you do against a country which kidnaps 4 year olds from parents and trains them in gymnastics, swimming, diving from that age, running military style camps for little kids? Here parents discourage talented kids from playing sports, aur udhar the state owns their prodigies, leaving parents with no say. 

Japan was referring to Asian Games but yeah.

 

I'd say the biggest thing for us is to reach 10k pci, 0.8 HDI. Improvement is exponential at that point as there is no horrible poverty/malnutrition. Should be sometime in the early 2040s.

 

Countries eventually stop growing and we should catch up with China in living standards at a point (like Koreans did with Japanese).

 

Of course that will take many decades but I do envisage a time where we are at current East European standards while China is at current West European. Again this is sometime in the 2050s/60s at earliest.

 

Let's see. Mazaa aayega. 

 

I think once we "crack" a sport there will be a deluge in Olympic medals (similar to all the cricket trophies in the last few years - men's/womens's).

 

Shooting, wrestling are the closest we are to it. Think we will get minimum 3 golds each from both these by 2036.

 

Plus addition of cricket and compound archery of course helps.

Edited April 13 by deathmonger

[Gollum]

USA, China....never catching them. Unsurpassable level. 

 

Japan, Australia, France, Germany, GBR, Even Russia if they are allowed to compete again. Beyond our reach. 

 

South Korea, Netherlands, Italy, NZ, Canada.  At least in our lifetimes we won't see India reaching that level. Consistent 10+ golds. 

 

However there is another tier comprising Spain, Brazil, Hungary etc. This is reachable when we peak and are in a position to host the Olympics. Some time middle of the century. 7-8 golds, 20+ overall medals, doable.  

 

Turkey, Iran, Uzbekistan level....this we must reach in next 2-3 editions. And when we do that, we will be in a position to bid for the games. Work in silence until then. 

[Gollum]

13 minutes ago, deathmonger said:

Japan was referring to Asian Games but yeah.

 

I'd say the biggest thing for us is to reach 10k pci, 0.8 HDI. Improvement is exponential at that point as there is no horrible poverty/malnutrition. Should be sometime in the early 2040s.

Still need to work on sports culture bit. I saw so many East Asians representing and winning medals for western countries in winter Olympics. No desi representation. In fact you don't see Indians in any non-cricket sports in the west. Our people should encourage their kids to play more. I see many Chinese kids acing sports as well as academics in USA. West Asian and North African background guys in NFL, AFL, European football leagues. Nigerians doing well in UFC (MMA). 

13 minutes ago, deathmonger said:

 

Of course that will take many decades but I do envisage a time where we are at current East European standards while China is at current West European. Again this is sometime in the 2050s/60s at earliest.

Even if it happens some day, sadly both of us will either be dead or too old to care about these things. In my prime years (say next 20 odd years), I want tangible change in Indian sports. I have been following tennis almost my entire life and breaks my heart to see no Indian rep in singles. I am not expecting an Alcaraz or Sinner to emerge but at least a consistent top 30 guy who sometimes makes it to second week of majors. 

Edited April 13 by Gollum

[Gollum]

14 minutes ago, deathmonger said:

Shooting, wrestling are the closest we are to it. Think we will get minimum 3 golds each from both these by 2036.

By now we should have reached that level in wrestling. Talent hai, players mein work ethic hai, sincerity/determination/jigra sab hai....but wrestling federation is a clown show. Half the time those chomus are busy banning our high ceiling young wrestlers. Why? Because some useless administrator got his ego hurt. 

[Lone Wolf]

On 4/11/2026 at 1:15 PM, Gollum said:

SL tour fixtures still not announced. Eagerly waiting for the test series there, going to be a stiff challenge on rank turners. 

 

Disappointed with BGT fixtures. Ranchi, Guwahati why? Also what is this rotation policy we keep hearing about? Ahmedbad hosted a test against WI last year, Guwahati hosted the 2nd test against RSA in December which we lost by 400+ runs. Why these venues when Wankhede, Eden haven't been given a single BGT test since the 2001 series !!!!! Disgusting politics at play. BGT should be played in marquee venues like that 2001 series. Aussies never make us play tests in Hobart, Canberra when we tour there, never mind Cairns, Darwin, Townsville !!!!

They will announce it next month perhaps..

2/3 T20s (cyclone relief charity)

 

1st test in Galle (tough one)

2nd likely in Kandy/P Sara Colombo 

 

 

Aussies are hosting BD in Cairns and Darwin for 2 tests lol in off season 

 

 

[deathmonger]

16 hours ago, Gollum said:

Still need to work on sports culture bit. I saw so many East Asians representing and winning medals for western countries in winter Olympics. No desi representation. In fact you don't see Indians in any non-cricket sports in the west. Our people should encourage their kids to play more. I see many Chinese kids acing sports as well as academics in USA. West Asian and North African background guys in NFL, AFL, European football leagues. Nigerians doing well in UFC (MMA). 

Even if it happens some day, sadly both of us will either be dead or too old to care about these things. In my prime years (say next 20 odd years), I want tangible change in Indian sports. I have been following tennis almost my entire life and breaks my heart to see no Indian rep in singles. I am not expecting an Alcaraz or Sinner to emerge but at least a consistent top 30 guy who sometimes makes it to second week of majors. 

Bhai, me to budhape me bistar pe soke pura mazaa lunga.

 

Next 20 years me bhi changes aayenge though.

[Gollum]

16 hours ago, Lone Wolf said:

They will announce it next month perhaps..

2/3 T20s (cyclone relief charity)

 

1st test in Galle (tough one)

2nd likely in Kandy/P Sara Colombo 

 

 

Aussies are hosting BD in Cairns and Darwin for 2 tests lol in off season 

 

 

We need more ODIs boss. Agle saal bas ODI WC hi hai, we need more games for the likes of Jaiswal, Rana, Samson, and some other wildcards like Sooryavanshi. 

 

Kuch bhi bolo, ODI WC will always be the main thing in white ball cricket. 2-6 is already too big a deficit, with Aussies old/jaded, best chance to close the gap. 

[Gollum]

1 hour ago, deathmonger said:

Bhai, me to budhape me bistar pe soke pura mazaa lunga.

 

Next 20 years me bhi changes aayenge though.

I don't want a tectonic shift in next 20 years, aside from us dominating cricket like Aus/WI of the past.

 

Just a couple of tennis players in top 30, Olympic gold and WC in hockey, Top 20 finish in Olympics by mid-century, also more Indian rep in globally followed sports, be it MMA, golf, football. 

 

Apart from cricket, we have the potential to be a major force in hockey, badminton, wrestling etc., but our administrators will always be a hindrance. Also some of our wrestlers can transition to MMA (look at Dagestan, Central Asia), guidance and sponsors/coaching/support chahiye bas. 

 

Chess mein, despite recent dissapointments (can put it down to young age of our players, fluctuations are common and also distractions like online chess, SM which wasn't this profound even when Carlsen was their age), I have full confidence in Viswanathan Anand. If he continues to mentor the next gen, we will eventually become the sole superpower of that game. I firmly believe that Anand was born to play the role of Mikhail Botvinnik this century, what Botvinnik did for Soviets last century, Anand will do for India in rest of his life.  

Edited April 14 by Gollum

[deathmonger]

3 minutes ago, Gollum said:

I don't want a tectonic shift in next 20 years, aside from us dominating cricket like Aus/WI of the past.

 

Just a couple of tennis players in top 30, Olympic gold and WC in hockey, Top 20 finish in Olympics by mid-century, also more Indian rep in globally followed sports, be it MMA, golf, football. 

 

Apart from cricket, we have the potential to be a major force in hockey, badminton, wrestling etc., but our administrators will always be a hindrance. Also some of our wrestlers can transition to MMA (look at Dagestan, Central Asia), guidance and sponsors/coaching/support chahiye bas. 

 

Chess mein, despite recent dissapointments (can put it down to young age of our players), I have full confidence in Vishy Anand. If he continues to mentor the next gen, we will eventually become the sole superpower of that game. I firmly believe that Anand was born to play the role of Mikhail Botvinnik this century, what Botvinnik did for Soviets last century, Anand will do for India in rest of his life.  

Tennis I don't know but hockey, cricket, wrestling, badminton, shooting, boxing, archery, squash we will be very very good.

[Gollum]

7 minutes ago, deathmonger said:

Tennis I don't know but hockey, cricket, wrestling, badminton, shooting, boxing, archery, squash we will be very very good.

Once upon a time we were damn good in tennis, best in Asia. 

 

3 Davis Cup finals when it was taken very seriously (would have won one of those but we forefited since we didn't want to play in apartheid South Africa), 2-3 times we beat GOAT Aussies (Laver, Rosewall, Newcombe, Emerson, Roche) along the way. Vijay Amritraj had respectable H2H against many ATGs, I made a thread about him in the past. 2 singles QFs in Wimbledon, 2 QFs in USO, in a tough era (Connors, Borg, McEnroe etc), peaked at world number 18. Ramanathan Krishnan made couple of Wimbledon SFs in 60s. Even Paes, Sania, Bopanna, Bhupathi etc. had respectable careers, former two even showed spark in singles. Somdev punched above his weight, now and then some bright prospects emerge like Nagal, Yuki. There is something to work with there.

 

Because of their global nature, tennis, football, MMA (small now but rising in profile faster than any other sport) mein success mile toh coverage is global. So many people know Serbia only because of Djokovic. 

Edited April 14 by Gollum

[Lone Wolf]

1 hour ago, Gollum said:

We need more ODIs boss. Agle saal bas ODI WC hi hai, we need more games for the likes of Jaiswal, Rana, Samson, and some other wildcards like Sooryavanshi. 

 

Kuch bhi bolo, ODI WC will always be the main thing in white ball cricket. 2-6 is already too big a deficit, with Aussies old/jaded, best chance to close the gap. 

I have given up on ODI WC and ODI cricket... I ain't watching Ro Ko with their ultra slow reflexes and all right hand heavy batting unit which will be tied down by spin in middle overs.  Add to that malnourished finish by Sadeja Kela Pandua in final 10 overs.  

 

Fast bowling for ODIs is meh mostly.  Kanglus, Kiwis and English will all be looking to destroy us in ODI bilateral series this year.  Hopefully it happens and we see some retirements otherwise its Ovari da for 2027.

 

T20 cricket is where all the fun is.. so many younger guys will likely get their chance.  Just saw on SM that SKY's Future is going to be decided post Eng T20s... BCCI is serious about LA28

 

Test cricket I am hoping for a resurgence somewhere.  At least we have a youngish squad even if we are a mid table side.

Edited April 14 by Lone Wolf

[Strangering]

Something amazing about Test Cricket. Even Pak v Bang is fun to watch compared to Tontee Tontee. 

 

The equal back and forth between bowlers and batsmen is special.