Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the 15-year-old IPL 2026 breakout star, has lit up the tournament with 776 runs from 16 matches and that impact has now caught the attention of the All India Senior Men’s Selection Committee. The left-handed batter has been placed in India’s 30-man probables pool for the upcoming Asian Games, while T20 World Cup-winning skipper Suryakumar Yadav and Test and ODI leader Shubman Gill have been left out of the long list.
The BCCI has already forwarded the probables list to the Indian Olympic Association ahead of the Games scheduled in Aichi-Nagoya from September 19 to October 4. It has been settled that the board will field two separate T20I teams for the Asian Games, along with India’s home white-ball series against the West Indies.
The men’s cricket competition at the Asian Games will be staged between September 24 and October 3. Meanwhile, India’s white-ball series versus the West Indies is set to run from September 27 to October 17, featuring three ODI matches and five T20I games.
With Gill expected to captain the ODI side, he has not been considered for the Asian Games, where India will mainly focus on the T20 structure. Suryakumar’s absence is also linked to developments around future assignments: news reports have suggested he is no longer in contention for the 2028 T20 World Cup and the Los Angeles Olympics, making his exclusion from the Asian Games list less surprising.
Jasprit Bumrah has also been included among the current longlisted names, but he is not expected to travel for the Asian Games. The ODI format is likely to take precedence for him, given that the World Cup is scheduled next year in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
Captaincy race
Since Suryakumar will not be part of the Asian Games squad, the leadership role in India’s T20 setup is expected to fall to one of Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, or Tilak Varma. Harshit Rana—who picked up an injury during New Zealand earlier this year—is anticipated to regain full fitness and has therefore been added to the probables alongside Arshdeep Singh and Prasidh Krishna.
Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar and Harsh Dubey are also on the list, but only two from this group are expected to be selected. The remaining two are likely to be used in the white-ball series against the West Indies. The same “two-of-four” approach is anticipated for the spin department, with Kuldeep, Axar, Washington and Harsh Dubey forming the pool from which the final pair will be chosen.
Full long-list (30 probables)
- Yashasvi Jaiswal
- Abhishek Sharma
- Vaibhav Sooryavanshi
- Ishan Kishan
- Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper)
- Shreyas Iyer
- Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper)
- 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 Nigam
- Harshit Rana
- Yash Thakur
- Washington Sundar
