CWG 2022: India's gold medal prospects at Birmingham Commonwealth Games

Here is a list of players and teams that could be prospective gold medal winners for India in the upcoming Commonwealth Games 2022, which begin on July 28, 2022, in Birmingham, England

India has continuously improved its medal count at the Commonwealth Games. Its best-ever medal haul was in the 2010 edition when it hosted the Games in New Delhi. Heading into the 2022 edition of the Games in Birmingham, England, the hopes of more than 1.3 billion people rest on the shoulders of more than 200 players that have qualified for the quadrennial showpiece. 

 

In the last Commonwealth Games held in Gold Coast, Australia, in 2018, India secured a total of 66 medals which included 26 Golds. The gold winners were spread across major sports such as shooting (7), weightlifting (5), wrestling (5), boxing (3), table tennis (3), badminton (2) and athletics (1). 

 

However, this edition has removed shooting from the sports list. Hence, India's medal tally might not be as big as the last edition. Here is a list of players and teams that could be prospective gold medal winners in the upcoming event, which begins on July 28, 2022. 

 

Athletics

 

Neeraj Chopra will be India's best bet to win a yellow metal with an Olympics Gold swinging around his neck. His competitors, the Germans and Polish throwers would not be in the fray here; thus, he has a clear shot at gold. Apart from Chopra, Annu Rani, a woman Javelin thrower, who even made it to the Olympics final at Tokyo 2020, would also be looking to win gold. However, it would not be easy for her against Australian and Jamaican competitors. 

 

Badminton

 

In badminton, India has a great chance of winning at least four gold medals. Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth would face tough competition from Loh Kean Yew, the current world champion from Singapore and Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia. PV Sindhu has less competition as her best-ranked competitor is Michelle Lee from Canada, who has not beaten Sindhu even once. 

 

Men's doubles is another discipline in which India could very well win gold. Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are in great form, and their biggest competitors, the Malaysians, are ranked just one spot ahead of them in BWF World Rankings. Thus, if India can ace these three disciplines, they can win the mixed team gold too, which involves a best of five matches between two nations in five categories of men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles. 

 

Boxing

 

Nikhat Zareen, the reigning world champion, will be the poster lady of the Indian boxing contingent, including World Championships silver medalist Amit Panghal and Olympic bronze medalist Lovlina Borgohain. These are three gold medal prospects for India, while Shiva Thapa and Mohammad Hussamuddin could also surprise people with their determination. 

 

Cricket

 

Winning gold in the women's T20 competition, the cricket event played at the CWG 2022, would be a tough ask for India. It would have to face the likes of home favourites England in the semi-finals in all probability. If they could beat England, they would have to face Australia in the final and beating Australia in knockouts is almost like climbing Everest, but Indian women have done that in the past. It could be a massive upset if they can win the gold, but we definitely cannot count them out. 

 

Hockey

 

Indian men's team would give a tough fight for gold to Australia, the reigning silver medalist from Tokyo Olympics. India won the bronze at the same event by beating Germany and thus possess the pedigree to trouble and even beat the Aussies.

 

Though the Indian women's team could not make it through to the last eight in the recently concluded Women's Hockey World Cup 2022, they did put up a splendid show. 

 

They drew with England and China at the group stage and lost to New Zealand 3-4 by conceding a very late goal. Even in the cross-over game against Spain, they lost 0-1, courtesy of a goal in the 57th minute. Thus, not a gold medal contender outrightly, but this Indian women's hockey team can surprise everyone on their day. 

 

Table Tennis

 

In the last edition of the Commonwealth Games, India created history by winning three gold medals in table tennis as the Indian Men's team, Women's team and Manika Batra in Women's singles surprised bagged the numero uno positions. 

 

If the current world TT rankings are to be treated as the criterion for judgement, India once again has the best chance at winning both men's and women's team gold. If Batra in women's singles and Sathiyan Ganasekaran or Sharath Kamal in men's singles could keep their calm, India could have individual gold too.

 

Weightlifting

 

After shooting, weightlifting and wrestling were the two major gold mines for India at Gold Coast. This year too, the hopes are resting on the broad shoulders of Indian weightlifters Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, Bindyarani Devi and Gururaja Poojary, who have all performed exceptionally well recently. 

 

While Chanu won the silver at Olympics, Bindyarani is a gold winner at the 2021 World Championships. Gururaja ranked 9th in the World Championships and won a silver at the Commonwealth Championships in December 2021. Punam Yadav, a gold winner from CWG 2018 in the 76 kg category, is also a gold medal prospect this time. 

 

Wrestling

 

At Olympics 2020, Ravi Kumar Dahiya and Bajrang Poonia won important silver and bronze medals for India. Deepak Punia and Vinesh Phogat could have also been among medals but for very small mistakes. These four, alongside Olympic bronze medalists from Rio 2016, Sakshi Malik and 2021 Asian Championships gold medalist Divya Kakran are major gold medal hopes for India.