India Name Squad for Japan T20I and Asian Games, Vipraj Nigam Earns Maiden Call-Up

India have named their 14-player squad for the historic one-off T20I against Japan and the subsequent Asian Games campaign, with Shreyas Iyer continuing as captain and Tilak Varma as his deputy.

The squad arrives with one change from its earlier composition, after Varun Chakravarthy was ruled out of both assignments with a side strain picked up during the Afghanistan series, with leg-spin all-rounder Vipraj Nigam handed a maiden international call-up as his replacement. Nigam first came to prominence during IPL 2025 with Delhi Capitals, and impressed further during India A's one-day tri-series in Sri Lanka in June, finishing as joint-highest wicket-taker.

Squad: Shreyas Iyer (c), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma (vc), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Yash Thakur, Vipraj Nigam.

India play Japan in Nisshin on September 22 in what will be the first-ever meeting between the two nations in international cricket, before their Asian Games campaign begins directly at the quarter-final stage on September 28, with the semi-finals on October 1 and medal matches on October 3, as India defend the gold they won at Hangzhou 2023.