India prepares for historic first T20 match against Japan in Tokyo

India is playing its first-ever T20 International against Japan on September 22, 2026, marking the 20th different opponent India will face in this format. The match starts at 1:00 PM local time or 9:30 AM IST. India's T20I captain Shreyas Iyer and all-rounder Washington Sundar admitted they knew very little about the local conditions, pitch, or the opposing players before arriving. Iyer noted the local discipline and hospitality, while Sundar praised the food and technology. For Japan, cricket remains outside the mainstream, though the sport is growing through recent events like a World Cup qualifier earlier this year and matches at the Asian Games. The game takes place at a venue where capacity has been expanded from 500 to 2,000 seats. The ground has hosted 39 men's T20Is previously, with teams batting first winning 21 of those encounters. Recent matches at the venue, such as a game between Japan and Hong Kong, have been low-scoring contests with slow and spin-friendly pitches. Temperatures around the start of the match are expected to reach about 31 degrees. Japan captain Kendel Kadowaki-Fleming called the fixture surreal and promised his team would compete their best. Japan recently secured a landmark five-wicket win against Kuwait at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup Qualifier 2026. India's squad features players including Shreyas Iyer, Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Yash Thakur, and Vipraj Nigam. Japan's squad includes Kendel Kadowaki-Fleming, Charlie Hara-Hinze, Benjamin Ito-Davis, Alester Kadowaki-Fleming, Kohei Kubota, Jake Kusuda-Nairn, Wataru Miyauchi, Reo Sakurano-Thomas, Alex Shirai-Patmore, Shoma Sugaya-Slater, Declan Suzuki-McComb, Tsuyoshi Takada, Ibrahim Takahashi, Makoto Taniyama, and Lachlan Yamamoto-Lake.