India team players during the Practice Session at Korogi Sports Park, Nisshin, Japan, on September 27, 2026. (CREIMAS)After the Indian women’s team retained their gold medal in the Asian Games earlier this week, the men’s team will begin their gold medal defence in their quarterfinal match vs Afghanistan on Monday. But there’s a chance that weather could add to the uncertainty of the contest.Nagoya has seen almost continuous rain since Saturday, with more forecast until Thursday. Korogi Sports Park has no floodlights, and visibility has remained poor even when it has not rained, although the forecast improves from Friday.The venue has already seem 2 matches abandoned with Nepal vs Japan and Malaysia vs Oman called off due to the weather. India themselves will be wary about the weather here due to the Men in Blue almost slipping on a banana peel in their one-off T20I match vs Japan earlier this week in a 5-over contest.On a pitch offering plenty of turn, Japan pushed India all the way and threatened a massive upset before Axar Patel held his nerve in the final over to pull off a two-run win in a five-over contest. Japan needed eight runs from the final over after reaching 25/3 in their chase of 33. Axar came back for a second over with little room for error.Also Read | Asian Games: Amid rain threat, Shreyas Iyer & Co begin gold defence against new-look AfghanistanHe began with a dot ball before Benjamin Ito-Davis and Alexander Shirai-Patmore took singles. There was then some confusion over wides down the leg side, with Iyer and wicketkeeper Sanju Samson questioning the calls. One decision was eventually reversed after the umpires had a discussion. Japan were left needing four from the final ball. Shirai-Patmore could only manage a leg bye, allowing India to escape after being pushed far closer than they would have expected.What happens if rain washes away India vs Afghanistan match?In case the rain washes away the India vs Afghanistan match, India will directly qualify to the semifinal due to their higher ICC ranking, as per the rules. India are currently ranked 1st in the world while Afghanistan are 10th.India squad:Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Ravi Bishnoi, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Jasprit Bumrah, Sanju Samson, Axar Patel, Ishan Kishan, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Shivam Dube, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Vipraj Nigam, Yash Thakur.