IND vs JPN T20I | 'As exciting as the occasion will be of playing India...': Japan's skipper Kendel Kadowaki-Fleming

Kendel Kadowaki-Fleming (Pic: X/@PTI_News)

Japan is set to lock horns with Team India in a historic T20I clash on September 22. The match is scheduled to be played at the Sano International Cricket Ground.

Ahead of the clash against the "Men in Blue", Japan's skipper Kendel Kadowaki-Fleming stated that the Japanese team will not just celebrate the occasion of playing against Team India, but will also display their skills as a men's team.

"It's very exciting. And I think a massive development for cricket in Japan to have countries like Afghanistan and Nepal coming here is something that we probably would have thought was very difficult to manage even a couple of years ago," he said.

"As exciting as the occasion will be of playing India, we're not there to just celebrate the occasion. We're there to show what we can do as a men's team. Obviously, a team like India have all bases covered, whether it's fast bowling, batting or spin. So it's just going to be great to be able to watch world-class players and the best team in the world in that format go about it," added Kadowaki-Fleming.

The skipper also sees Team India's clash as a first step in competing against full member teams.

"Hopefully this is the first step in a long history of playing against and competing against full member countries," he said.

The clash against the "Men in Blue" will be the first event under "Sport 75", an initiative arising from an agreement reached during a summit between Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The initiative aims to strengthen people-to-people exchanges and cooperation between the two countries through sport.

Japan will also face Hong Kong in two T20Is on September 19 and 20 before beginning their Asian Games campaign against Afghanistan on September 24 and Nepal on September 26. They will need to finish in the top two to advance to the quarter-finals.

IND vs JPN T20I: Full squads

India: Shreyas Iyer (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

Japan: Kendel Kadowaki-Fleming (C), Charlie Hara-Hinze, Benjamin Ito-Davis, Alester Kadowaki-Fleming, Kohei Kubota, Jake Kusuda-Nairn, Wataru Miyauchi (wk), Reo Sakurano-Thomas, Alex Shirai-Patmore (wk), Shoma Sugaya-Slater, Declan Suzuki-McComb, Tsuyoshi Takada, Ibrahim Takahashi, Makoto Taniyama, Lachlan Yamamoto-Lake.

(With PTI Inputs)