Sports Minister Anurag Thakur unveils India's official kit for Commonwealth Games 2022

Union Minister of Sports & Youth Affairs Anurag Thakur unveiled the official Indian kit for the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2022 on Thursday. During the ceremony, he also led the official sending off of all the athletes. CWG 2022 is set to begin in three weeks in Birmingham, England. The mega sports event will be held from Thursday, July 28 to Monday, August 8.

The unveiling of the kit took place in the presence of several dignitaries that included Chief Guest Anurag Thakur, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nisith Pramanik, Director General of Sports Authority of India Sandeep Pradhan, and IOA's Acting President Anil Khanna.

Some of the stars present at the ceremony included Tokyo Olympics 2020 medallists PR Sreejesh, Manpreet Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Bajrang Punia and Lovlina Borgohain. India is set to send a strong squad of 215 athletes for the Commonwealth Games 2022.

Anurag Thakur leads sending off of Indian contingent for CWG

While speaking in his address as the chief guest, Anurag Thakur said, "Today with the vision and tireless efforts of our popular Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi, Indian sports have reached a higher level globally. The performance at last year’s Olympic Games was our best ever and we have seen the improvement of our athletes across sports in recent times with our own eyes. The historic Thomas Cup win was one such occasion."

The Union Minister of Sports went on to add, "This Indian CWG squad is definitely our best and strongest ever and I am confident that all our athletes will make India proud at a global stage yet again, the number of medals they win notwithstanding. We are all proud of them and the whole country will be behind them, whether in victory or in defeat. We wish you all the very best."

The Indian contingent will hope to better their record from the last time they competed at the Commonwealth Games in 2018. On that occasion, they won a total of 66 medals, including a staggering 26 golds.

Over 90% of the medals, including 25 of the 26 gold, came from six sports -- badminton, boxing, shooting, table tennis, weightlifting and wrestling.