The Commonwealth Games 2026 begin on Thursday 23 July 2026 in Glasgow with India starting with a 124-member team going to try to build on its performance at the Birmingham Games in 2022. India won 61 medals at Birmingham including 22 gold and 16 silver medals and took fourth place overall.
The Glasgow edition will have 74 countries and territories represented, and more than 3,000 athletes are expected to take part. A total of 215 gold medals will be awarded in 10 sports disciplines during the 11-day competition from 23 July to 2 August.
India will be making its 19th appearance at the Commonwealth Games. The country first participated in the event in 1934 and has since developed into one of the strongest sports nations in the world.
India's campaign on Day 1 will begin with lawn bowls. The Indian team will compete in the men's singles and women's pairs events and both competitions will begin at 2:00 PM IST. Putul Sonowal will represent India in men's singles and Rupa Rani Tirkey and Pinki Singh will compete in women's pairs.
Lawn bowls is of great significance to India after the country's historic performance in Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022. Lovely Choubey, Pinki Singh, Nayanmoni Saikia and Rupa Rani Tirkey were the women’s fours team that won India’s first Commonwealth Games medal in the sport, defeating South Africa in final.
India also secured a silver medal in the men's fours competition at Birmingham. Sunil Bahadur, Chandan Singh, Navneet Singh and Dinesh Kumar were the runners-up, making this another memorable win for India in lawn bowls.
The opening ceremony will take place at Glasgow's OVO Hydro, one of the city's most prominent indoor arenas. For viewers in India, at 12:30 AM IST on Friday, July 24, the ceremony will start at 8:00 PM local time in Glasgow.
The event will be broadcast in India on the Sony Sports Network, and live streaming will be available through SonyLIV. There has also been coverage on several Sony Sports channels including Sony Sports Ten 2 and there are also language feeds.
India is expected to be a medal target in all spheres of sports at the Glasgow Games. The contingent will have several players to contend with to become the first to do so.
The 2026 edition is also in a shorter format than the previous Commonwealth Games, with fewer sports and fewer disciplines. Despite this reduced scale, we expect that the competition will be of great interest in India particularly since the Commonwealth Games have historically provided the platform for athletes to go to compete in athletics, boxing, weightlifting and lawn bowls.
With the opening ceremony to formally kick-start the event and India’s lawn bowls campaign getting started earlier in the day, Indian fans will have much to do from the opening hours of Glasgow 2026.
