Pakistan’s men’s cricket team now know their path to an Asian Games medal: they will face Hong Kong, China, in the first quarter-final of the 2026 Asian Games on Monday, September 28, at the Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin, near Nagoya, Japan, according to The Express Tribune and WION.
Pakistan earned direct entry into the last eight without playing a single group-stage match, seeded straight into the quarter-finals on the strength of their ICC T20I ranking alongside arch-rivals India, as well as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Hong Kong, meanwhile, fought their way in by finishing second in Group B with two points from two matches, edging out Oman, whose campaign ended after their final group game was abandoned without a ball bowled.
The Full Quarter-Final Line-Up
| Quarter-Final | Fixture | Date |
|---|---|---|
| QF1 | Pakistan vs Hong Kong, China | Monday, Sep 28 |
| QF2 | India vs Afghanistan | Monday, Sep 28 |
| QF3 | Nepal vs Sri Lanka | Tuesday, Sep 29 |
| QF4 | Bangladesh vs Malaysia | Tuesday, Sep 29 |
India’s quarter-final against Afghanistan carries its own storyline: it is a rematch of the gold-medal match from the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, which India won on their way to the title. Nepal and Afghanistan topped Group A, eliminating hosts Japan after their decisive match with Nepal was washed out by rain, while Malaysia and Hong Kong went through from Group B. Winners of Monday and Tuesday’s matches advance to the semi-finals on Thursday, October 1, with the bronze-medal match and gold-medal final both scheduled for Saturday, October 3.
Weather could yet complicate the tournament’s business end: forecasts cited by WION put the chance of rain at 91 percent on Monday and 89 percent on Tuesday. Under the tournament’s playing conditions, if a quarter-final is abandoned without a ball bowled, the higher-ranked side (by ICC T20I rankings) advances automatically — a rule that would favour Pakistan and India in their respective ties.
A Young Squad, Minus the Regulars
Pakistan will go into the tournament with a notably inexperienced line-up. Regular white-ball fixtures Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan and Salman Ali Agha have all been left out of the 15-man squad, which is captained for the first time by opener Sahibzada Farhan, with Abdul Samad as vice-captain. Four players — Akif Javed, Ali Raza, Maaz Sadaqat and Saad Masood — have yet to earn their first Pakistan T20I cap.
The squad does carry one significant asset: leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed, who this month rose to No. 1 in the ICC’s T20I bowling rankings, giving Pakistan a proven wicket-taker on pitches in Nagoya that are expected to assist spin.
“It is not like the players who have been selected for the Asian Games are inexperienced. They have all played international cricket [or] come into the team after proving themselves in domestic cricket and the PSL. I have a lot of confidence in these players,” Farhan said, according to CricTracker.
Farhan added that the squad had gone through a focused four-day training camp before departure, deliberately preparing for turning tracks: “We have tried to replicate the conditions which we expect to encounter in the Asian Games and played spin more. We have had two scenario matches as well and the players are looking in good shape … We will not have much time to prepare when we reach Japan so we have put in a lot of effort in this four-day camp so we are well-prepared before we land there.”
Pakistan’s men follow the country’s women’s team into the knockout stage of the same Games — the women’s side lost their semi-final to Sri Lanka earlier this week and will instead play for bronze. A repeat of the men’s run to at least a medal match would give Pakistan a share of the podium regardless of how Monday’s toss goes.
Our Opinion
Leaving out Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi, Shadab Khan and Salman Agha for a multi-sport event that many boards still treat as a second-tier commitment is a genuine call on the PCB’s part, and it deserves to be judged on its own terms rather than dismissed as an experiment; blooding four uncapped players against Hong Kong, a genuinely winnable tie, is a sensible place to find out what this depth actually looks like under pressure. The bigger test of intent will come only if Pakistan get past the quarter-final and into a probable last-four meeting with a full-strength India — that is the match that will show whether this is a development squad being taken seriously or a full-strength team being rested at a convenient moment.
