Vaibhav Sooryavanshi makes Indian men's longlist to IOA for Asian Games 2026; Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav miss out

Teen sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi made it to the 30-member strong longlist of men's probables that was sent to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) by the BCCI for the upcoming Asian Games 2026 to be hosted in Japan's Aichi-Nagoya from September 19 to October 4.

Sooryavanshi has been in tremendous form in 2026. After guiding the Indian U-19 to World Cup title, courtesy a mammoth 175 in the final, 15-year-old enjoyed a stellar Indian Premier League (IPL) season with Rajasthan Royals, finishing at 776 runs in 16 at a strike rate of 237.30.

However, the two notables names missing from the list are India's current T20 skipper Suryakumar Yadav, along with Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill. The BCCI will need to select two separate T20I teams as India's home white-ball series against the West Indies overlaps partly with the quadrennial extravaganza.

The West Indies series comprises eight white-ball games -- three ODIs and five T20Is -- between September 27 to October 17. Since Gill is expected to lead the team in ODIs, he hasn't been picked for the Asian Games 2026.

While some players are common in both ODIs and T20Is, men's cricket event at the Asian Games will take place between September 24 to October 3, forcing the selectors to create a bigger pool to pick two teams.

The captaincy candidates in that Asian Games list would be Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson and Tilak Varma. The list of bowlers has Jasprit Bumrah's name in it although ODIs could be his priority at that point in time taking the 2027 World Cup into account.

Harshit Rana is expected to be fit by then and has been kept in the long-list along with Prasidh Krishna and Arshdeep Singh. Among spinners, the frontline slow bowlers Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar and Harsh Dubey have made it to the list.

But only two among the four spinners are expected to be picked for the Asian Games 2026. The other two will play the Windies series. Surprisingly, the only prominent non-performer to make the list is gold medal-winning skipper from the Hangzhou edition -- Ruturaj Gaikwad.