New Delhi, India

After a memorable run in Tokyo Olympics last year, the Indian contingent roared and inspired once again in the recently-concluded Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2022 edition in Birmingham. The entire Team India squad consisted of several medal contenders such as PV Sindhu, Manpreet Singh-led Indian men's hockey team, Harmanpreet Kaur-led Indian women's cricket team, Mirabai Chanu, Sharath Kamal, Bajrang Punia-starrer wrestling camp.

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While many big names and strong medal contenders didn't disappoint, some relatively-unknown players and sporting stars made a mark as well. I bet not many would've googled lawn bowls before the women's team attained gold whereas the men's settled for silver. Thus, there were quite a few positives for India as the star-studded squad kept the national flag flying high throughout the tournament. Here's reliving top five team or individual performances at the Games:

ALSO READ | From PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen to mixed team's silver: How Indian shuttlers roared and inspired at CWG 2022

1) Badminton squad's exceptional run: Badminton remained one of the strongest disciplines for India at the showpiece event in Birmingham. In the mixed team event, defending champions India lost to Malaysia 3-1 in the summit clash to settle for silver. However, there were many highs overall.

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Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy won gold in men's doubles. Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand clinched bronze by beating the Australian pair of Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen/Gronya Somerville in the women's doubles category. Kidambi Srikanth secured bronze in singles whereas 20-year-old Lakshya Sen claimed gold in the same category.

PV Sindhu, the superstar shuttler, won her maiden gold at the Games defeating Canada's Michelle Li 21-15, 21-13 to complete a CWG set (gold, silver and bronze).

2) Wrestlers' dominance: Among all sports, wrestling remained the most most successful for Team India at CWG 2022 with as many as 12 medals. For the unversed, all the dozen wrestlers had returned with medals in Gold Coast 2018 and they managed to replicate the same this time around as well. 

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The likes of Bajrang Punia, Deepak Punia, Ravi Dahiya, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik won a gold medal each whereas the likes of Pooja Sihag, Mohit Grewal, Naveen Sihag, Divya Kakran also returned as CWG 2022 medal winners.

3) Sharath Kamal - The veteran who won more gold medals than 56 countries at CWG'22: The 40-year-old Sharath Kamal ended with a rollicking campaign in CWG'22. The table tennis player clinched three gold medals and a silver medal for India at the recently-concluded 2022 edition. Sharath won gold medals in the men's team, mixed doubles and men's singles events whereas he settled for silver in the men's doubles category in Birmingham 2022.

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4) The lawn bowls' team's success: Not many Indians would've be aware about this sport had it not been the hype generated by the men's and women's team courtesy of their performances in CWG'22. The women’s fours team -- comprising Lovely Choubey, Pinki, Nayanmoni Saikia, and Rupa Rani -- beat South Africa in the final to help India win its maiden gold and first-ever medal at the Games in lawn bowls.

The men's team having the likes of Sunil Bahadur, Navneet Singh, Chandan Kumar Singh and Dinesh Kumar clinched the silver medal after losing to Northern Ireland. Before this, the country had managed a best of fourth position — in the women's triples event in 2010 and the men's fours event in 2014.

ALSO READ | CWG 2022: Indian contingent shines, ends campaign at fourth slot with a staggering 61 medals

5) Mirabai Chanu-starrer weightlifters: After her resounding success at Tokyo 2020, Mirabai continued to rise up the ladder and ended with gold in her 49kg category, with a total of 201 kg. Not only Mirabai, many weightlifters stunned with their performances at the big stage. Achinta Sheuli (gold), Jeremy Lalrinnunga (gold), Gurdeet Singh (bronze), Vikas Thakur (silver), Harjinder Kaur (bronze), etc. roared to make their presence felt.

India clinched 22 gold, 16 silver and 23 bronze medals at the Games in the 2022 edition. Out of the total 61, India accounted for a staggering 12 medals in wrestling and 10 in weightlifting as the two sporting disciplines stood tall for the Indian contingent in Birmingham 2022.