By james art 
Glasgow CWG Axes Nine Sports From Roster: How many medals did India win in these events in Birmingham? (Photo: Badminton Photo)
The Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, to be played in 2026, have come under heavy criticism since they dropped nine sports from their roster to ensure “cost-cutting”. It should be noted that most of these sports are ones in which India has historically thrived and also collected a large number of medals in the last edition, in Birmingham in 2022.
In a severe blow to India’s medal prospects in the multi-sport event, key sports such as hockey, badmintonwrestling, cricket and shooting have been dropped from the 2026 edition by host city Glasgow, which has unveiled a shortened list of 10 disciplines to keep the event budget-friendly.
Not only hockey and badminton, but table tennissquash and triathlon were also suspended in an effort to contain costs and streamline logistics, given that only four venues would host the entire showpiece.
How many medals did India win in these sports in 2022?
Shocking as it sounds, 30 of India’s 61 medals from the 2022 Commonwealth Games were from sports that will not be participating in the 2026 edition of the event. Let’s take a look at how many medals came from each of these sports:
Badminton: 6
India won the most medals in badminton in 2022. In men’s singles, Lakshya Sen won gold and Kidambi Srikanth won bronze. In men’s doubles, Satwiksaraj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won the gold. In women’s singles, PV Sindhu won the gold. In the women’s doubles, Triza Jolie and Gayatri Gopichand won bronze. In the mixed team event, India won silver.
Cricket: 1
In their first ever foray, India’s women’s cricket team won silver in 2022, second only to Australia.
Hockey: 2
In perhaps the biggest blow given India’s recent heyday in the sport, both the men’s and women’s teams won medals in 2022. The men’s team won silver, second only to Australia, while the women won bronze in a thrilling shootout against New Zealand.
Squash: 2
In men’s singles, veteran Saurav Ghoshal won bronze. In mixed doubles, he and Deepika Pallikal also won bronze.
Table tennis: 7
In men’s singles, Sharath Kamal won gold and Sathyan Gnanasekaran won bronze. In men’s pairs, they won silver. In the mixed doubles, Kamal partnered Sriya Akula to win the gold. The men’s team also won gold.
Wrestling: 12
India and Canada won the most medals in wrestling at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Ravi Kumar Dahiya won gold in Men’s 57kg, Bajrang Punia in Men’s 65kg, Naveen Malik in Men’s 74kg, Deepak Punia in Men’s 86kg while Deepak Nehra won bronze in men’s 97kg. Mohit Grewal also won bronze in the men’s 125kg category.
Pooja Gehlot won bronze in women’s 50kg, while Vinesh Phogat won gold in women’s 53kg. Anshu Malik won silver in women’s 57kg, while Sakshi Malik won gold in women’s 62kg. Divya Kakran won bronze in women’s 68kg and Pooja Sihag also won bronze in women’s 76kg.