What to expect from Indian contingent in Commonwealth Games?

Published at :July 27, 2022 at 10:14 PM

Modified at :July 27, 2022 at 10:55 PM

The Indian contingent at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games: Expected Medal Tally and more by Mohak Arora, Sports Expert, Parimatch brand.

P.V. Sindhu will be leading the Indian contingent at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games (CWG 2022) as the last edition’s silver medalist will be hoping to go one better in the United Kingdom this time around.

A total of 192 Indian athletes will be taking part in the upcoming edition of the quadrennial tournament including the men’s hockey team, the women’s hockey team, and 39 track and field athletes taking part in different disciplines.

Badminton

Sindhu won the bronze medal at the 2014 CWG and followed it up with a silver in the previous edition. This time around, the star shuttler would be expected to bag a gold medal after winning the recently concluded Singapore Open.

Lakshaya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth will be competing in the men’s singles category while Chirag Shetty and Satwisiksairaj Rankireddy would also be hoping for a medal in the men’s double category as the latter will be returning after an injury layoff.

Boxing

Amit Panghal, Ashish Kumar, and Lovlina Ashish Kumar will be the leading hopes of the nation in Boxing as a relatively new contingent is traveling to the United Kingdom after last edition’s flag bearer Mary Kom decided to call time on her career.

Cricket

The Indian women’s cricket team will also be travelling to the UK as cricket will make its much-awaited debut at the upcoming edition of the Commonwealth Games.

Harmanpreet Kaur will be leading the 15-member contingent set to take on world giants like Australia, England, South Africa, etc.

The Women in Blue would be expected to bag a medal in the T20 format of the game with the likes of Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana taking the batting responsibilities along with the skipper while Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Pooja Vastrakar expected to do the damage with the ball in hand.

Hockey

The Indian men’s team won a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics and would be boosted to promote it to a silver medal at least. With an easier route to the semi-finals in England, Canada, Ghana, and Wales, India should be a favourite to face Australia in the ‘Gold Medal’ match.

The Indian women’s team also showed a spirited showing at the Tokyo Olympics which grabbed several eyeballs across the country and the world. They would also be hoping for a medal after losing 6-0 to England in the bronze medal match of the previous edition.

Squash

Deepika Pallikal, Ramit Tandon, Abhay Singh, Sourav Ghosal, and Joshna Chinnapa will be entrusted with bagging a medal in squash.

Pallikal and Chinnapa won a silver medal in the women’s doubles category in the previous edition while Sourav and Deepika also won a silver medal in the mixed doubles category.

Table Tennis

Manika Batra would be holding the Indian flag high in table tennis with Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran competing in both singles and doubles categories.

In the previous edition of the CWG, Batra won the gold medal in the women’s singles category alongside bagging a bronze in the mixed doubles category with Gnanasekaran also bagging two medals; a silver and a bronze.

Both men’s team and women’s team also won gold medals with Kamal bagging a bronze in the men’s singles category as well.

This time around, the paddlers would be hoping for a repeat of the huge success in Birmingham as well.

Track & Field Events

Avinash Sable will once again take the mantle to represent India in the 3000m steeplechase event. Amit Khatri and Sandeep Kumar will be taking part in the 10,000m walk event.

Tokyo Olympics gold medal winner Neeraj Chopra will also be in action in the Javelin Throw event with Muhammed Anas the glittering hope in the Long Jump event.

Seema Punia will be participating in the Discus Throw event while Dutee Chand and Hima Das will be seen competing in the 4x100m relay race event.

Weightlifting

Saikhom Mirabai Chanu will be the shining hope for the nation as she will be competing in the 49kg category while several eyes will be on Vikas Thakur and Punam Yadav as well.

Wrestling

Bajrang Punia won the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics last year and will be hoping for a gold medal in the 65kg category. Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik will be the shining lights in the women’s 53kg and 62kg categories respectively.