30 of India’s 61 CWG medals(2022) came from sports that aren’t in Glasgow(2026)

At Birmingham 2022, India sent 12 wrestlers. All 12 came home with medals.

It was one of the cleanest sweeps India has ever produced at a major multi-sport event. And it’s the detail that best explains why Glasgow 2026 is going to look so different.

Because there are no wrestlers in Glasgow.

How Glasgow ended up with 10 sports

The 2026 Commonwealth Games were not supposed to be in Glasgow. Victoria, Australia was the host: confirmed, planned, scheduled. Then in 2023, the state government pulled out. Costs had gone completely out of hand. The Commonwealth Games Federation scrambled, brought Glasgow back in as an emergency host, and the condition was simple: use existing venues, keep it small.

Four venues. Eight miles between them. A city that wasn’t built for a 20-sport event, so it won’t be running one.

The 10 sports in Glasgow: athletics, swimming, track cycling, weightlifting, 3×3 basketball, lawn bowls, artistic gymnastics, judo, and boxing.

What’s gone: wrestling, hockey, badminton, cricket, squash, table tennis. And shooting, which had already been dropped from Birmingham.

The medals that won’t happen in July

None of those missing sports are fringe for India. Here’s what Birmingham 2022 actually looked like by sport:

Sport	Medals at Birmingham 2022	In Glasgow 2026
Wrestling	12	No
Table Tennis	7	No
Badminton	6	No
Hockey	2	No
Squash	2	No
Shooting	0 (also absent at Birmingham)	No

That’s 30 medals, nearly half of India’s 61, from sports that won’t exist in July.

PV Sindhu won’t be in Glasgow. Bajrang Punia won’t be. Achanta Sharath Kamal, who has competed across five Commonwealth Games and won 13 medals, has no event to enter. The Indian men’s hockey team, which won silver at Birmingham, has nowhere to go.

These athletes aren’t past it. The programme just moved on without their sports.

India also decided not to send teams in 3×3 basketball and netball, both of which are in the Glasgow programme, which trims the squad down further. At Birmingham, India sent 210 athletes across 16 sports. That number won’t come close in July.

Who’s going, and what can India win

Mirabai Chanu is confirmed. She won gold at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships earlier this year and has already locked in her spot. Five boxers qualified through the Asian Boxing Championships. The women’s lawn bowls fours team, which won gold at Birmingham, goes in as one of India’s quieter but more reliable medal chances. And if athletics delivers, the tally gets a meaningful boost.

That’s where the real uncertainty sits.

Neeraj Chopra is expected to be there. He missed Birmingham with injury, so Glasgow would be his first Commonwealth Games as an Olympic gold medallist. He’s been in South Africa for a 32-day training stint and the AFI expects him to compete at both CWG and Asian Games this year.

The athletes in the hardest spot

Avinash Sable is a different story. He won silver in Birmingham’s 3000m steeplechase, the race where he ended Kenya’s 24-year hold on that event. Then in July 2025, at the Monaco Diamond League, he fell during a race and tore his ACL and meniscus. Surgery. A long rehabilitation. He got back into training in January 2026 and by his own estimate is at roughly 70 to 80 percent fit. His position on Glasgow is clear:

Jyothi Yarraji is also working back from ACL surgery. The qualifying standard for the 100m hurdles is 12.67 seconds and her national record is 12.78. To get to Glasgow, she’d need to break her own record.

The AFI has capped the entire athletics team at 32 athletes and set standards that, in some events, require athletes to match or beat national records. The final trials are in Ranchi, May 22 to 25. The squad gets decided there.

What to realistically expect in July

The honest expectation: somewhere between 15 and 20 medals. Maybe a little more if the athletics comes together.

That’s what happens when you take away half the sports. India’s athletes haven’t gotten less capable. The sports they’re best at just aren’t in Glasgow.

There is one genuine first worth noting. India’s women’s 3×3 wheelchair basketball team has qualified for the Commonwealth Games for the first time, through the Asia-Oceania qualifying spot. The men’s team didn’t make it.

The squad going to Glasgow is genuinely strong. On a smaller stage, with less noise and fewer distractions, some of these athletes might produce their best performances yet. The medal count just won’t tell that story properly.

What the medal count will tell you is: India arrived at a party where half the menu was gone.

Sources

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