India at CWG 2026: Which Sports Are On, Which Are Gone & How to Find the Schedule
Updated 27 July 2026 · Reviewed weekly · 8 min read · Dhani Game Team
Quick answer: Glasgow 2026 is a deliberately smaller Commonwealth Games with a reduced sport programme, so several events Indian fans expect — hockey and squash among them — are not being staged at all. Gymnastics, boxing, weightlifting, athletics and swimming are on the programme. This Dhani Game guide explains what changed, why your searches for some sports come up empty, and how to convert the schedule into IST. No medal predictions here — only what is on the timetable.
If you have spent twenty minutes hunting for a Commonwealth Games hockey fixture and found nothing but articles from 2022, you have not been searching badly. The 2026 edition was rebuilt from scratch after the original host withdrew on cost grounds, and the version that survived is a compact, city-centred Games with a much shorter sport list. For Indian audiences that is the single most consequential fact about this edition, and almost nobody leads with it.
The Programme, and the Gaps
Below is the shape of the 2026 programme. Treat it as an orientation rather than an entry list — event programmes are revised later than people expect and the official Commonwealth Games website is the authority on both the sport list and the session times.
| Sport | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Athletics (incl. para) | On the programme | The largest medal-event block at any Games |
| Swimming (incl. para) | On the programme | Multiple finals sessions across the fortnight |
| Artistic gymnastics | On the programme | Team, all-around and apparatus finals |
| Boxing | On the programme | A long-standing Indian strength |
| Weightlifting & para powerlifting | On the programme | Historically India’s densest medal sport at CWG |
| Judo | On the programme | Returns after being absent from some recent editions |
| Track cycling (incl. para) | On the programme | Velodrome-based, compact schedule |
| Bowls (incl. para) | On the programme | A Commonwealth staple |
| Netball | On the programme | Team sport, group stage into knockouts |
| 3x3 basketball & wheelchair basketball | On the programme | Short-format, fast turnaround |
| Hockey, squash, badminton, table tennis, wrestling, shooting, cricket | Not on the 2026 programme | Confirm on the official sport list before assuming otherwise |
The absences hurt more in India than almost anywhere else, because they land precisely on the sports where the country has built its Commonwealth medal history over the last two decades. That is not a scandal — a host city rebuilding a Games in a short window has to work with the venues it already owns, and a velodrome and an arena are easier to fill than a hockey stadium and a squash complex. It is, though, the context every comparison to Birmingham 2022 needs and rarely gets.
Where India’s Depth Historically Sits
We are not going to predict outcomes. What is fair to describe is history. Across recent Commonwealth Games, India’s most consistent returns have come from weightlifting, boxing and athletics among the sports on the current programme, with weightlifting the deepest of the three — a pipeline that runs well beyond its most famous name, as our profile of Mirabai Chanu and Indian weightlifting explains.
Gymnastics is the interesting one. India has had individual finalists at Commonwealth level rather than a deep squad, and artistic gymnastics is a sport where a single apparatus specialist can be genuinely competitive without the country having any broader strength. It is also, for a casual viewer, the most watchable event on a reduced programme — short routines, immediate scores, and a scoring system that rewards paying attention.
Reading the Schedule in IST
Glasgow is on British Summer Time in late July, which is UTC+1. India is UTC+5:30. That makes IST exactly four and a half hours ahead of local Glasgow time:
- A 09:30 morning heat session in Glasgow starts at 14:00 IST.
- A 13:00 afternoon session starts at 17:30 IST.
- A 19:00 evening finals session starts at 23:30 IST.
- A late final finishing around 21:30 local ends at 02:00 IST the next morning.
That last row is the one worth planning around. Most medal ceremonies at a European Games land in the small hours in India, which is exactly when a half-awake fan is most likely to trust a screenshot instead of the official board. If you are staying up, use the official schedule’s own timezone switcher rather than doing the arithmetic on a phone at 1am — and read the result from the results system, not from the timeline.
What to Do With the Medal Table
Two things worth internalising before you look at a tally this fortnight. First, the table is ordered by golds, not by total medals, which explains most of the arguments about a nation’s position — the full explanation is in our Commonwealth Games medal tally guide. Second, with a smaller programme there are fewer medal events overall, so raw comparisons with Birmingham or Gold Coast are comparing two different-sized competitions.
For general background on the event, its history and its member nations, the Commonwealth Games overview on Wikipedia is a reasonable starting point. For live numbers, use the official results system and nothing else — the habits that make that easy are in our live-results tracking guide.
Play Responsibly (18+)
Dhani Game runs no betting markets on the Commonwealth Games, publishes no odds and makes no medal predictions. If you play one of our instant games during a break in the schedule, treat it as entertainment: you must be 18 or older, state rules on online gaming vary across India, and no outcome is ever guaranteed. Set a limit first, never raise a stake to win something back, and stop at the limit. Our budget basics guide covers how to set one you will actually keep, and the overview of problem gambling is a sensible read if play stops feeling like entertainment.
Conclusion
Glasgow 2026 asks Indian fans to follow a different Games from the one they are used to: smaller, tighter, and missing several sports the country has owned at this event. Check the official sport list before you go hunting for a fixture, add four and a half hours to every local session time, and read the tally knowing it sorts on gold. More from Dhani Game: the medal table explainer, the Mirabai Chanu profile, or the free colour prediction demo if you want to see how a round works without spending anything.