Tejas Shirse will look to open India’s medal tally in athletics as the track and field events begin at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games on Monday. Shirse had broken the men’s 110m hurdles national record with a time of 13.27s during the Indian Athletics Series in Ludhiana last month, and carried that form into the season after winning gold at the Inter-State Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar.He had also claimed the Federation Cup title in Ranchi and will be hoping for a strong showing in his first Commonwealth Games. However, all of this still feels like a dream considering he was sidelined for over four months after suffering a serious right ankle injury late last year.“To be honest, 13.27 wasn’t even part of the plan. Even qualifying for the Commonwealth Games wasn’t something we thought about initially. But things worked out and I was able to get both,” Shirse had said after his victory in Bhubaneswar.The injury marked one of the lowest points of his career, something he detailed in an Instagram post in March that began with the words, “I hate it!” The period was so difficult that he sometimes went days without sleep and was “angry and frustrated to the point of snapping”.“People kept talking about my ‘potential,’ and I started to hate that word because everyone said I had so much potential, but I wasn’t able to show it,” he said.Shirse, however, continued to believe in himself and, with the support of his team, emerged stronger. “I came out of that phase as a much more mature person. I take every experience positively now,” he said. “Looking back, I’m glad I got through that phase because it changed me.”Apart from his physio Nilesh Makwana and coach James Hillier, what helped him the most during that period was patience. He believes the experience has prepared him for “the battles on the track and also in life.”However, he kept a long distance from his family so as not to worry. His coach, James Hillier, but could not be more proud of his return.“We only resumed track training on April 13, and exactly two months later, on June 13 in Ludhiana, I broke the national record. It’s an extraordinary achievement,” Hillier said. What will be an even bigger success is if he gets on the podium. It’s challenging, but Hillier thinks it’s possible.In addition to Shirse, the trio of Sarvesh KushareTejaswin Shankar and AadarshRam will look to light up the evening session in the men’s high jump final. Kushare enters CWG on a high after breaking the national record with a jump of 2.31m and is fourth in the world list this season. Shankar, meanwhile, won bronze in the previous edition, while Ram has a personal best of 2.27m.In the men’s long jump qualification, Murali Sreeshankar and Lokesh Sathyanathan will be in action, while Gurindervir Singh begins his campaign in the first round of the men’s 100m. Gurindervir broke the national record in Ranchi with a time of 10.09 seconds and sounded confident of putting up a good show on his CWG debut.