Virat Kohli gearing up for Delhi’s upcoming Ranji Trophy fixture.It was the return of the ‘king’ who has lost his crown, as ABBA belted out. Virat Kohli last played a Ranji Trophy match in November 2012, against Uttar Pradesh. He is returning to the domestic fold in January 2025. The match against Railways at Feroz Shah Kotla, starting from Thursday, would be a high-profile affair, with Kohli turning up for Delhi.
The disaster Down Under has forced the Indian team stars to return to the grind of domestic cricket, thanks to a 10-point diktat from the BCCI. Rohit Sharma played Mumbai’s previous game against Jammu and Kashmir. Kohli skipped the last round of the Ranji Trophy fixtures, citing a neck sprain. He is playing this game, and a turnout of 10,000 is expected, with no live telecast/streaming of the match on schedule as of now.
Kohli joined the Delhi nets today. Spent half-an-hour facing three spinners – Harsh Tyagi, Sumit Mathur and Shivam. Tyagi beat him a couple of times, making the ball turn sharply. Then, Kohli faced five fast bowlers, occasionally looking a tad uneasy against Siddhant and Navdeep Saini. Before going to Delhi, Kohli was seen training with former India batting coach Sanjay Bangar at a practice facility in Mumbai.
The Ranji Trophy game gives Kohli the opportunity to get back among runs on the heels of a flop show in the five-Test series in Australia – 190 runs from nine innings. Although the upcoming Champions Trophy is the main focus, having runs under his belt will help his confidence.
(With inputs from Rohit Juglan)