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Team India created history by winning back-to-back gold medals in the Asian Games. Today (October 4), the Shreyas Iyer-led team, coached by VVS Laxman, won the men's cricket event at the 2026 Asian Games by defeating their arch rivals, Pakistan.
Speaking to the media, one of the key players of the T20I team, Ishan Kishan, mentioned that the win was not only for the team, but for the entire nation. Additionally, the event will help the team during the Cricket Olympics ahead on the road.
Feels really good because: Ishan Kishan after winning the 2026 Asian Games gold medal
Ishan Kishan told the news agency PTI that as they were representing the India national cricket team, it was a dream for them to win the gold in the prestigious event. Athletes from different nations joined the event with the same dream: to become the champion, but only one emerges as the best.
Again, it was the Indian cricket team that got the best among all the other participants.s Earlier in the 2026 Asian Games, Harmanpreet Kaur captained the Indian women's national cricket team to the championship; now, the men's team also touched the glory.
"It feels really good because when you come to a place like this, especially when you are representing India, you have a lot of dreams. There are a lot of athletes who want to come to the Asian Games and win, but unfortunately they are not able to win. So after winning the gold, especially in the sport you are in, you feel really good because, along with you, India has also won. There was a lot of team effort," Ishan Kishan said.
Ishan Kishan reflects on the match against Pakistan
Pakistan looked promising when they got the wickets of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Sanju Samson early in the first innings. Despite the early blows, Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma did not let the team down in the contest, securing a half-century each. India posted 211 runs against 6 wickets in 20 overs.
Ishan Kishan said that the Pakistan cricket team tried to do their best to throw a good challenge to them, but the Indian bowlers did enough to restrict the Men in Green for a reasonable total in the powerplay. As Pakistan batters failed to deliver their best in the powerplay, they eventually failed to match the required run rate as the match entered the death overs.
"Regarding the match, yes,s we got a fight, but in a way we understood that we have to keep winning because their run rate was not like that at the start. They didn't have 10 overs; they had 75 runs in 10 overs."
"And especially when you chase a total like this, you have to be somewhere around 100-120 runs in 10 overs. So we knew that we had to win the whole match. And this is also a part of the Cricket Olympics," Ishan told the media.
I will dedicate this medal to the whole of India: Ishan Kishan
The Indian keeper-batter further mentioned that he dedicated the hard-earned medal to all of India, as the win was not only a win of a team, but a win of an entire nation.
"I will dedicate this medal to the whole of India because this is not just our victory; it is the victory of the whole of India. And this is also a part of the Cricket Olympics. We will definitely have to work hard. We are excited, but we have to work hard to win. And when we win, we will see," he concluded.
"𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮'𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹"
— Sportstar (@sportstarweb) October 3, 2026
Ishan Kishan talks about the Asian Games final where the Indian team went on to take home the gold 🔥#AsianGames2026 #cricket #ishankishan pic.twitter.com/dU4pbrMip7
