Asia Cup: Shafali, Deepti help India seal convincing 94-run win over …

India kicked off their Women's T20 Asia Cup with an impressive 94-run triumph against Thailand. Shafali Verma ignited the innings with her electrifying batting, laying a robust foundation for the team. The bowlers showcased their prowess, limiting Thailand to a modest score. Highlighting the match, Deepti Sharma reached a remarkable milestone, claiming the title of leading wicket-taker in women's T20I history, ensuring a triumphant start to the tournament for India.

My first memory of the Asian Games is an elephant called Appu and a television called Apsara. It was 1982. I was 13, in Class 8 at Don Bosco, Park Circus, Calcutta, and the Asian Games in Delhi seemed to have suddenly taken over India. Appu was based on a real elephant called Kuttinarayanan, which I found out much later.

I didn’t know that Appu was also the first mascot in Asian Games history. Or that Delhi 1982 would mark another historic transition, with China topping the medal table for the first time and ending Japan’s dominance.
Forty-four years later, with the Asian Games heading to Aichi-Nagoya in Japan from September 19 to October 4, 2026, it is worth dipping into the Asiad’s wonderful book of trivia. afrikasportnews.co.za

The first Asian Games were held in New Delhi in 1951, with just 11 participating countries, 489 athletes and six sports. Japan finished comfortably on top of the medal table.

Hangzhou 2022, eventually staged in 2023 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, brought together more than 12,000 athletes from 45 National Olympic Committees. The Asian Games had become bigger than the Olympics in terms of participating athletes.

Another interesting aspect is that the Thai capital, Bangkok, has hosted the Games four times — in 1966, 1970, 1978 and 1998. The 1970 Games were originally scheduled to be held in Seoul, but South Korea withdrew because of financial and security concerns. Bangkok stepped in, having hosted the Games just four years earlier.

Sport has never existed entirely outside politics, and Asian Games history reflects Asia’s complicated geopolitical journey. Israel, for example, participated in the Asian Games during its early decades and won medals, including football gold in 1974. It subsequently ceased participating in the Games and eventually became part of the European sporting structure.

The Asiad has also been willing to embrace sports that reflect the continent rather than simply replicate the Olympic programme. So we have had kabaddi from South Asia, sepak takraw from Southeast Asia, wushu from China, kurash from Central Asia and pencak silat from Indonesia and the wider Southeast Asian region.

You can win an Asian Games medal without running anywhere. The Asian Games have had a wonderfully elastic interpretation of sport. Chess, bridge and xiangqi — Chinese chess — have all featured. Bridge was included at Jakarta 2018, producing one of the more unusual sights at a major multi-sport event: athletes sitting calmly at card tables while, elsewhere in the city, marathon runners were discovering entirely different definitions of suffering.

Cricket was remarkably late to the party.
For a continent containing India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, cricket’s Asian Games history is surprisingly brief. It first appeared at Guangzhou 2010. Cricket then disappeared from Jakarta 2018 before returning at Hangzhou, when India finally entered and promptly won both the men’s and women’s gold medals.

For decades, the idea of India winning 100 medals at a single Asian Games seemed fanciful.

At Jakarta 2018, India won 69 medals. Then came Hangzhou, where India finished with a record 107 medals — 28 gold, 38 silver and 41 bronze.

For someone whose first Asian Games memories involved Appu appearing through occasional static on Apsara, 107 Indian medals feels like another age entirely.

And so to Aichi-Nagoya 2026. The Games will feature 43 sports, ranging from athletics, swimming and gymnastics to kabaddi, kurash, wushu, cricket and esports. And in a sign of how the definition of competitive sport continues to evolve, padel and teqball are also on the programme.

Somewhere over its 75-year journey, the Asian Games have developed a brand proposition that no other major sporting event can quite replicate.

The Olympics is the world’s greatest celebration of sport. The Asian Games need not try to be a smaller version of it. Its strength lies precisely in being different.
Its cultural diversity makes it truly an event that showcases a thousand ways to play.

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Team India is set to begin the Women's T20 Asia Cup 2026 campaign by playing a clash against Thailand. The match is scheduled to be played on August 30 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in the United Arab Emirates.

Ahead of the match, Team India's head coach Amol Muzumdar said that Harmanpreet Kaur and co. are hungry for success and want to win more tournaments.

"This group has been a special one. We have done well in the ODI setup, in the Test matches that we have played. Last five Tests, if you see, we have won four of them," he said as quoted by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

"So they are hungry for success, they are hungry to win some tournaments. Every tournament is important, every tournament is crucial for this setup. They're really hungry for success. You'll be able to see that in the coming future," added Muzumdar.

The "Women in Blue" will miss the services of star batswoman Jemimah Rodrigues, who has been ruled out of the tournament due to injury. The head coach labelled Jemimah as a "clutch player", and said that she will be missed.

"I have always maintained that she's a clutch player for us. She will definitely be missed, but having said that her recovery is very important for us. Her rehab is well taken care of at the Centre of Excellence at Bengaluru. She will be missed, but there are some players who have come into the team and who will do well. But Jemimah will be missed," he said.

In the ongoing Women's T20 Asia Cup 2026, Team India is placed in Group A along with teams: Thailand, Hong Kong, and arch-rivals Pakistan.

Women's T20 Asia Cup 2026, IND W vs THA W: Full squads

India: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav, Arundhati Reddy, Bharti Fulmali, Renuka Singh, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh (WK), Nandani Sharma, Pratika Rawal, Kranti Gaud, Shree Charani, Gunlan Kamalini (WK), Prema Rawat.

Thailand: Suleeporn Laomi, Naruemol Chaiwai (C), Chanida Sutthiruang, Natthakan Chantham, Nannapat Koncharoenkai (WK), Onnicha Kamchomphu, Phannita Maya, Sunida Chaturongrattana, Thipatcha Putthawong, Aphisara Suwanchonrathi, Nannaphat Chaihan, Chayanisa Phengpaen, Koranit Suwanchonrathi, Thanrada Seesawan, Naomi Kanokporn Hamilton.

(With ANI Inputs)

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