With only seven days to go for the upcoming ICC World Cup 2019 to be held in England and Wales from May 30 and the euphoria for the premier tournament picking up, the ICC has taken a taken a historic decision of introducing the concept of home and away jerseys, a concept that is already popular in football. Team India is set to don a different jersey when it takes on Afghanistan (June 22) and hosts England (on June 30) respectively. There are four teams which have blue as their preferred colour- England, India, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan.
However, since England is the host country, the other teams having traditionally blue jerseys will have to sport jerseys with different colours. However, apart from their matches against England and Afghanistan, team India will continue to don its traditional blue jersey in the remaining games, including the one against Sri Lanka. India has been listed as the home side for the game against Sri Lanka.
Pakistan, South Africa and Bangladesh also have a common colour in green jersey. These teams too, will have to look for alternative colours for a few games. However, Pakistan has the luxury of donning the traditional green colour throughout the tournament because it has been listed as a home team for the matches against South Africa and Bangladesh. Australia, West Indies, and New Zealand having unique colours, do not need to look for alternatives.
Team India is going to don a new-look Orange jersey in the matches for which it is listed as an away team. The new kit will see team India wear a darker blue colour in the front and orange dominating the sleeves and the back. As per a New Indian Express report, there have been talks to include the Orange colour in team India’s apparel for the last six months. In fact, there were efforts to make it the dominant colour during when India’s apparel sponsor Nike introduced a new edition for team India jersey during the home series against Australia. However, the idea was reportedly shelved. Now, with the ICC bringing in a new rule, India have opted for the Orange colour.
It will not be for the first time that an Indian sports team will don the Orange colour. The Indian football team has traditionally worn the orange away kit. In 2018 SAFF, the football team even went on to don the orange colour as the home team against Maldives and Sri Lanka in group stages.