On October 3, Indian fans may witness something that has not happened for 28 years. There is a chance that two different Indian teams will be playing in two different countries on the same day. It happened once in 1998 and now history is set to repeat itself. So how is this possible? Well, there is no rocket science behind it.

Save the Date

October 3 is the day that India take on West Indies in the 3rd and final ODI in New Chandigarh. However, on the same day, they will be either playing for the bronze or the gold in the Asian Games. That will be a T20I side of course. India have a direct entry into the quarters on September 28 and if they win that, they shall play the semis on October 1.

© X/BCCI

It's Happened Before

Regardless of the semifinal result, India will play on October 3. If they win, it will be for gold and if they lose, it shall be for bronze. India won the gold back in 2023. The last time this happened was September 12, 1998. On that occasion, the opponents were Pakistan in both cases, and the venues were Kuala Lumpur and Toronto. India played Pakistan in the Commonwealth Games and the Sahara Friendship Cup.

Strong Asian Games Squad

The squad travelling to Japan is pretty strong. Led by Shreyas Iyer, it has Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. So, India are taking the Asian Games pretty seriously and want the gold medal badly.

© X/BCCI

Big Names Back for ODIs

Meanwhile, Shubman Gill shall lead India in the ODIs vs West Indies while Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are expected to return for the series that begins on September 27. KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav are also expected to play vs West Indies. It's all part of the 2027 ODI World Cup preparation as India hope to lock down their squad sooner rather than later.

What Next for Team India?

India will also play a historic T20I vs Japan ahead of their Asian Games campaign. That game is on September 22. But before all that, they take on Afghanistan in a three-match T20I series from September 13 to 17. The unique thing is that Afghanistan are the 'hosts' even though the games are being played in New Delhi. India's next Test assignment is in New Zealand from November 19 and is crucial to their chances for entering the WTC Final.