Team India remains one of world sport’s most-followed teams of all time, amassing fan bases in the hundreds of millions in recent years. The team generates huge revenue from merchandise sales, with a major chunk of such money coming from kits.
Some of India’s top kits produced by top brands were popular classics and still in demand among diehard cricket fans today. Top among the list of cricket kits worn by Team India include sporting wears from 1992, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2019, and so on.
Several fashion design companies and sports brands continue to jostle for an opportunity to sponsor and mass-produce Team India kits. However, some of the designed kits for India have had a short run in recent years.
Let’s check out five cricket kits of Team India which had a very short operating run after launching. Also, we’ll get to see Team India’s cricket kit progression from the 1980s down to the 2020s later on in this article.
5 Cricket Kits of Team India Which Had a Very Short Run
1990s Yellow
Fans of India were left in awe with India’s early 1990s kit change. Team India designers opted for a dominant yellow jersey, abandoning traditional shades of blue worn by the team for more than a decade. The 1990s yellow kit had touches of blue at its sides and gave Team India a whole new look. The kit was soon discontinued to feature common colored strips from older designs.
1997 Kit
India’s tour of Zimbabwe in 1997 made headlines not for their on-field performances, but for the new strip design. Team India opted for a blue-colored kit in this year, moving away from their common strips in the early and mid-1980s.
Tricolor Kit – 2012 World Cup
Nike launched Team India’s kit for the 2012 T20 World Cup, but the team never wore it. The strip had India’s tricolor around its shoulder area and a different shade of blue from older jerseys in India’s colorful kit lineup.
India’s cricket governing body, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) pulled this kit before the world cup. Team India went to the 2012 T20 World Cup with their 2011 kit instead.
Orange Kit – 2019 World Cup
The Orange kit donned by Team India at the 2019 World Cup was more of a necessity than an accepted design. India had to wear orange to align with the Home-Away kit rule, since England had a blue kit as their home strip at the time. India wore the orange kit once in 2019 and never put it on again for competitive games.
‘Killer’ Kit – 2023
Killer was India’s kit sponsor for a short period in 2023, but the deal didn’t last. India’s BCCI soon replaced their short contract with a comprehensive Adidas deal. The original Killer kit received few changes ahead of India’s stacked calendar in 2023.
Timeline of Team India Kits (1985 – 2021)
Check out how India’s kits have progressed in recent years from top classics to common shades of blue on their jersey lineup:
1985 Kit – the first time India done colored jerseys at an international event. They won the title in this year with a shade of blue on their jersey, seeing off longtime rivals Pakistan to claim the Benson & Hedges World Championship of Cricket.
1992 Kit – India’s most popular classic jersey; also the first time the team wore a kit with the country name (in front) and player name (at the rear).
1993 Kit – India wore a yellow kit with blue band across its front.
1994 Kit – a mix of yellow and blue was the highlight of India’s 1994 kit. The country name was written in blue and players names in yellow.
1996 Kit – light yellow and blue strip with yellow collars.
1997 Kit – dark blue BCCI logo introduced to the jersey.
1998 Kit – strip becomes all blue.
1999 Kit – yellow collar with black border and BCCI logo moved to left area of kit.
2001 Kit – BCCI logo moves to right side and three yellow strips added on kit.
2003 Kit – tricolor returns with paintings from its center to bottom.
2007 Kit – swirling tricolor kit introduced.
2011 Kit – different shade of blue introduced.
2015 Kit – all-blue kit returns in a different shade.
2019 Kit – away jersey introduced with different shades of classic kits.
2020 Kit – designed as a retro of the 1992 classic kit.
2021 Kit – shades of light blue introduced to the kit.
2023 Kit – the 2023 kit designed by Adidas is an improvement on the cancelled ‘Killer’ jersey after the latter’s expired contract.
