India’s bowls campaign at the Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow ended on Saturday as none of the country’s entries managed to make it past the group stage in their respective events.
The men’s pairs of Navneet Singh and Dinesh Kumar came the closest but failed to make the semi-finals after losing their final sectional play match in Section A against England in a tie-break.
It was a do-or-die tie for the Indian pair, who had earlier beaten teams from the Cook Islands, Namibia, Botswana and the Falkland Islands in their group.
At Glasgow 2026, all bowls events begin with sectional group play, where players and teams compete in a round-robin format. The winners of each group qualify for the semi-finals.
Both England and India came into the decisive contest at the Scottish Event Campus undefeated and needing to win to progress.
Earlier at the Commonwealth Games, the women’s pairs team of Rupa Rani Tirkey and Pinki Singh had finished third in Section B with three wins and two losses, failing to make the knockouts.
The Indian duo started well, winning their first three matches against Malta, South Africa and Tonga but lost steam in the business end, suffering back-to-back losses against Namibia and England – both close defeats.
The highlight of India’s CWG 2026 bowls campaign came in the men’s singles, where the 43-year-old Putul Sonowal upset reigning world champion Ryan Bester of Canada in his opening Section D tie.
Sonowal, the reigning Asian champion, followed up with another victory over Cecil Alexander of the Falkland Islands.
However, the Indian bowler lost his next three matches against Izzat Dzulkeple of Malaysia, Malta’s Shaun James Parnis and Kenya’s Anwar Hamada to eventually finish fifth in his group.
With two wins and three defeats, Nayanmoni Saikia finished fourth in Section D of women’s singles and failed to progress.
The Glasgow 2026 campaign has been a far cry from Indian lawn bowls’ fairytale run at Birmingham 2022, where two gold medals and a silver thrust the little-known sport into the national sporting consciousness.
Bowls is being held indoors for the first time at a Commonwealth Games.
