Pakistan Asian Games 2026 Squad and PSL Teams

Pakistan's Asian Games 2026 Squad: Every Player, Their PSL Team, and What to Expect in Japan

Pakistan just dropped a 15-man squad for the Asian Games 2026, and it's a bold statement. No Babar Azam. No Shaheen Afridi. No Shadab Khan. No Salman Agha.

Instead, the PCB has handed the reins to Sahibzada Farhan — fresh off the most productive T20 World Cup campaign Pakistan has ever seen from a single batter — and surrounded him with a mix of hungry young talent and PSL-proven performers. This is an experimental squad by design. It's worth knowing exactly who's in it and where they've been playing domestically.

The Tournament: What You Need to Know

Cricket returns to the Asian Games for the fourth time in 2026, hosted in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. All matches are played in T20 format at the Korogi Athletic Park in Aichi Prefecture, and they carry full international T20I status — meaning ICC ranking points are on the line.

The men's tournament kicks off on September 24 and runs through to October 3, when the medal matches are played. Ten teams are competing. The format mirrors what was used at Hangzhou 2023: the top four seeded nations — Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and hosts Japan among the pre-qualified sides — will enter directly at the quarter-final stage. The remaining six teams play preliminary group-stage matches to determine the other four quarter-finalists.

India are the defending champions, having won gold in both the men's and women's events at Hangzhou 2023.

The other confirmed participants alongside Pakistan include India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Japan (host), and four qualifiers who emerged from the Asian Games Men's T20I Qualifier held in Singapore from May 26 to June 8. Nepal, Oman, Hong Kong, and Malaysia were all battling for those remaining spots.

Women's cricket is also on the program, with an 8-team tournament starting September 17 and medal matches on September 22.

The 15-Man Pakistan Squad + PSL Teams

Here's the full squad, with each player's PSL 2026 franchise:

*Yet to make their T20I debut for Pakistan

PSL 2026 was won by Peshawar Zalmi, who defeated debutant Hyderabad Kingsmen in the final. Sufyan Moqim was named Player of the Series with 22 wickets, and Babar Azam finished as the tournament's top run-scorer. This squad pulls talent from across all eight PSL franchises — which is a decent sign that the selectors cast a wide net.

Three Players to Watch

Sahibzada Farhan isn't just getting the captaincy as a reward for one good World Cup — he finished as the leading run-scorer at the 2026 T20 World Cup with 383 runs at an average of 76.60, and he's currently Pakistan's top-ranked batter in T20Is. His 46-cap career includes two centuries and ten fifties. For Multan Sultans in PSL 2026, he continued that form. At 30, he's the most experienced name in this group, and the Asian Games is his first shot at leading Pakistan in any white-ball format.

Sufyan Moqim heads to Japan off the back of winning PSL Player of the Series honors with Peshawar Zalmi. The left-arm spinner took 22 wickets across PSL 2026, making him the tournament's leading wicket-taker. Asian pitches should suit him well.

Saim Ayub is the name most Pakistani fans will already be tracking. The explosive Hyderabad Kingsmen opener is one of the brightest young white-ball prospects in the country. Four players in this squad — Akif Javed, Ali Raza, Maaz Sadaqat, and Saad Masood — are yet to earn their first T20I cap. The Asian Games is their window.

Support Staff

Mike Hesson takes charge as head coach, joined by Ashley Noffke (bowling), Shane McDermott (fielding), Muhammad Tahir (physio), Imran Ullah (trainer), and Usman Hashmi (analyst and team operations).

Fourteen of the 15 selected players are currently part of the NCA White-Ball Camp in Lahore, which began June 15. The only exception is one overseas-based player.

Pakistan last won a medal at the Asian Games cricket event in 2010, taking silver at Guangzhou. Japan in September is a real shot at returning to the podium — especially with a hungry, unproven squad that has nothing to lose and a T20 World Cup-calibrated captain at the top of the order.

Cricket at the Asian Games starts September 24. Medal matches are October 3.

FAQ: Pakistan's Asian Games 2026 Team Selection

Why were Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi, and Shadab Khan left out of the Asian Games squad?

The PCB has deliberately gone with a second-string, experimental group for the Asian Games. With the Asian Games falling in late September, it sits in a congested international window, and the board has chosen to rest its frontline stars and give fringe players competitive T20I exposure. This is consistent with how other full-member nations approach multi-sport events — the Asian Games carry prestige but aren't prioritized over bilateral series and ICC events for established internationals. Regular T20I captain Salman Agha was also left out for the same reason.

Why do four players in the squad have no T20I caps for Pakistan?

Akif Javed, Ali Raza, Maaz Sadaqat, and Saad Masood were all included specifically because the Asian Games serves as a platform to blood uncapped talent in an official international setting. All four have had strong domestic showings — three of them played PSL 2026 with Hyderabad Kingsmen and Rawalpindiz — and the selectors clearly want to see how they handle T20I pressure before committing to them in higher-stakes bilateral cricket. With full international status and ICC ranking points on the line, these matches are real tests, not warm-up games.