“Virat Kohli is charged up, he is ready to rock,” said Sarandeep Singh, the Delhi coach, over the phone, a day before the start of this season’s Vijay Hazare Trophy. Delhi’s opening game is against Andhra and Sarandeep confirmed that Kohli would be playing. “He is playing tomorrow,” said the coach.
Delhi, who will play their matches in Bengaluru, are supposed to play their matches at Chinnaswamy Stadium. But the game could be shifted to the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE). As of now, it stays at Chinnaswamy, to be played before empty stands. The final clearance from the police, though, is expected in the afternoon. “Yesterday, we practiced at Chinnaswamy. If there’s a change in the schedule, I don’t have an idea as yet,” said Sarandeep.
The fact of the matter is that nobody wants to take chances after what happened on June 3, when Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s IPL victory parade turned tragic, claiming 11 lives and injuring 56 others. Kohli is a cult in that part of the world and shifting the games that he is playing to a secluded facility like the CoE would be a prudent call.
About a thousand miles away in Jaipur, Rohit Sharma would be turning up for Mumbai’s Vijay Hazare Trophy opener against Sikkim on Wednesday. The BCCI has made it mandatory for all centrally contracted cricketers to play domestic cricket when they are available, and the country’s premier domestic 50-over tournament has suddenly got a facelift.
“All the senior players, all the players who are playing at the highest level are coming back to play for their respective states,” said Sarandeep. “It’s very good for the youngsters also, who can learn a lot of things and it would be a serious boost to their confidence. It’s a great gesture from those players who said that with no international matches happening, they would be playing the Vijay Hazare Trophy. It’s a very nice thing happening for domestic cricket.”
How has Kohli’s presence changed the dressing room? “When a player like Virat enters the dressing room, things are totally changed,” said Sarandeep. “Youngsters look up to him. He is their idol. Everyone wants to be like him — how he is training, how he is doing his workouts, everything… There are a lot of things to learn from the senior players.”
Make no mistake, Kohli is not playing the Vijay Hazare Trophy just to have some game time under his belt before the ODIs against New Zealand next month. “He is here to win matches,” concluded Sarandeep.
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