CWG 2022, Day 1 for Team India: Harmanpreet-led Indian eves, women’s hockey stars, Manika & Co. in action

The Commonwealth Games 2022 edition kicked off on Thursday (July 28) with an emphatic opening ceremony event, held in Birmingham. PV Sindhu was India’s flagbearer, along with men’s hockey team captain Manpreet Singh, as the focus now shifts on the talented and power-packed Indian contingent in the showpiece event.

Given that the Indian team performed exceptionally well in the Tokyo Olympics, held last year, and the Asian giants ended in the third spot in the 2018 edition of the CWG, at Gold Coast, expectations are high from them, despite javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra’s absence (ruled out due to groin injury).

The opening day’s schedule is an action-packed one with several Indian sporting stars in action, such as the Harmanpreet Kaur-led India women’s cricket team, Savita Punia’s women’s hockey team, table tennis stars such as Sharath Kamal, Manika Batra, etc. Here’s a look at Team India’s schedule for Day 1:

Cricket

India will open their campaign versus Australia in their Group A match, which will commence at 3:30 PM (IST).

Hockey

India’s hockey team will square off with Ghana in their Pool A match at 6:30 PM.

Table tennis

Manika Batra, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Sanil Shetty, Achanta Sharath Kamal, Harmeet Desai, Sreeja Akula, Reeth Tennison and Diya Chitale will all feature in the first round at 2:00 PM.

ALSO READ | CWG 2022: From PV Sindhu to Bajrang Punia! Full schedule of Indian athletes in showpiece event

Cycling

Mayuri Lute, Triyasha Paul, Shushikala Agashe will be in action in the Women’s Team Sprint Qualification. Meanwhile, the likes of Rojit Tanglem, Ronaldo Laitonjam and Esow Alben will feature in the Men’s Team Sprint Qualification.

Swimming

Srihari Nataraj, Ashish Kumar, Kushagra Rawat and Sajan Prakash will hope to go through to the semi-finals via a qualification round, which is scheduled at 11:00 PM

Triathlon (3:30 PM and 5:30 PM)

Adarsh MS, Vishwanath Yadav will be part of the Men’s Individual (Sprint Distance) Final whereas the likes of Sanjana Joshi and Pragnya Mohan will take part in the Women’s Individual (Sprint Distance) Final.

Squash (4:30 PM)

Joshna Chinappa, Saurav Ghosal, Abhay Singh, Sunayna Kuruvilla, Ramit Tandon and Anahat Singh will take [art in the Singles Preliminary Round of 64.

Boxing (4:30 PM, 11:00 PM & 11:30 PM)

Shiva Thapa, Sumit Kundu, Rohit Tokas and Ashish Chaudhary are the boxers from Team India in action.

Lawn Bowl (1:00 PM, 7:30 PM)

Dinesh Kumar, Nayanmoni Saikia, Chandan Singh, Sunil Bahadur, Mridul Borgohain, Navneet Singh, Rupa Tirkey, Tania Choudhury, Pinki/Nayanmoni Saikia and Lovely Choubey will be part of the action on the opening day.

Gymnastics

Saif Tamboli, Yogeshwar Singh and Satyajit Mondal will be part of the Men’s Team Qualification & Individual Qualification at 1:30 PM.