Star Indian batsman Virat Kohli started training with the Delhi team here on Tuesday ahead of his return to the Ranji Trophy after 12 years. The 36-year-old Kohli, who has been struggling with poor form for some time, will play a Ranji Trophy match against Railways on January 30, which will mark his return to this premier domestic competition. He played his last Ranji match in 2012 against Uttar Pradesh in Ghaziabad. At that time, Kohli was the rising star of Indian cricket, but now he is among the biggest current legends of the game. This former captain of India now has 80 international centuries to his name.
Kohli arrived for training on Tuesday.
Kohli reached the Arun Jaitley Stadium at exactly 9 am on Tuesday and after meeting the team and warming up, he played football with his teammates for about 15 minutes. The star player looked comfortable with his new teammates. Almost all the Delhi players are sharing the dressing room with Kohli for the first time and looked very excited to have him among them. The practice drills were conducted under the guidance of Delhi head coach Sarandeep Singh.
Young players will get guidance from Kohli.
DDCA secretary Ashok Sharma said, 'It will be a great experience for our junior players as they will get a chance to share the dressing room with Virat. If you look at our team, only Navdeep Saini has played with Virat for India and in the IPL. No other player in this team has the experience of playing with Virat in the Ranji Trophy. Young players can learn a lot by watching him.'
Tight security arrangements for Delhi's match
When asked about the match arrangements, Sharma said, 'We know that Virat's presence will increase the importance of the match a lot. We have 10 to 12 private security personnel for a regular Ranji match, but we will increase the security so that there is no hindrance for Virat in practice.' He said, 'We have also informed the Delhi Police about the match.'
Ranji matches are free for spectators.
Ranji matches are free for spectators. Usually, one stand is opened for the spectators but for this match, DDCA will open three stands at Ambedkar Stadium end. He said, 'Spectators will be able to come to the stadium from gate number seven, 15 and 16. We will make arrangements for drinking water, and the toilets will be clean and hygienic. Spectators can come here and enjoy the match. Spectators will have to go through security checks, though.'
The match will not be telecast live.
However, this match will not be telecast live, which will disappoint Kohli's fans. A DDCA official said, 'If BCCI makes any arrangements at the last minute, then we do not know, but we have no information about the telecast of this match. Usually, a match is telecast live (TV or streaming) at all major centers. Our match against Tamil Nadu was telecast live. The broadcast roster is made months in advance.' The decision to telecast the match between Mumbai and Jammu and Kashmir live was taken long ago and it was a coincidence that Indian captain Rohit Sharma and young batsman Yashasvi Jaiswal were part of that match.
Delhi team: Ayush Badoni (captain), Virat Kohli, Pranav Rajvanshi (wicketkeeper), Sanat Sangwan, Arpit Rana, Mayank Gusai, Shivam Sharma, Sumit Mathur, Vansh Bedi (wicketkeeper), Mani Grewal, Harsh Tyagi, Siddhant Sharma, Navdeep Saini, Yash Dhull, Gagan Vats, Jonty Sidhu, Himmat Singh, Vaibhav Kandpal, Rahul Gehlot, Jitesh Singh.
BCCI makes playing domestic cricket compulsory
After the recent disappointing Test tour of Australia, all the star players of India, including ODI and Test team captain Rohit Sharma, are playing for their Ranji teams. This is due to the order of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that players should give priority to domestic cricket if they get time from their international schedule.
Rohit and Yashasvi will not play the next match.
Rohit (Mumbai) and Rishabh Pant (Delhi) did not have much success for their respective teams, but veteran all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja took 12 wickets for Saurashtra and Shubman Gill scored a century for Punjab. Punjab, however, suffered a defeat. Pant, Rohit, and Yashasvi Jaiswal (Mumbai) will not play the upcoming Ranji matches as they are preparing for the ODI series against England starting in Nagpur on February 6. However, Lokesh Rahul will play for Karnataka.
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