The former Indian captain, Virat Kohli, marked his return to the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 after nearly 12 years since he faced Uttar Pradesh in Ghaziabad against the bowlers, including Piyush Chawla, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Praveen Kumar. He hasn’t been in a good touch of late in the longest format of the game.
Virat Kohli’s move came after the new rules and regulations from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) made it mandatory for the players to be part of domestic games for their national selection. In the recent three-match Test series at home against New Zealand, the right-handed batter struggled with just 93 runs in six innings at an average of 15.50 with the help of just one half-century, which came during the second innings of the series opener at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Questions were raised about whether the veteran would get the form and rhythm during the five-match Test series down under in the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25. The Delhi batter started with a second-innings century in the first Test at the Optus Stadium in Perth. But he couldn’t do much for the last four games.
Virat Kohli repeated the same issues for the entire series as he kept on fishing with the blade outside the off-stump and ended with 190 runs in nine innings of the BGT 2024-25 at an average of 23.75 with the best score of an unbeaten 100.
“Virat Kohli is still the same for everyone”- Veteran’s U-19 coach
The batter finished with just 417 runs in 19 Test innings last year at an average of 24.52 and a strike rate of 62, with the help of one half-century and one century at the best score of 100*. His overall red-ball average has dropped below 47 with 9230 runs in 210 innings at a strike rate of 55.57, shouldering on 30 centuries and 31 half-centuries.
He was seen to be training with the Delhi side two days before the start of the Ranji game against Railways. The manager of the Delhi side, who is also the U-19 and U-17 coach of Virat Kohli, Mahesh Bhati, reflected on a recent interaction with the experienced batter.
“Virat Kohli carried a big kit bag & young players came to help, but he declined & I said ‘Virat, Teri Help Kara date hai, Virat replied ‘Bhaiya, Kya baat kar rahe ho? Mere khelne ka samaan hai, main khud uthaunga aur leke jaunga (I said, Virat let us help you, Virat replied ‘Bhaiya what are you saying? It’s my playing gear; I’ll carry it myself).” Bhtai reckoned during a recent interaction with the Times of India.
The authorities planned to host over 10000 fans for free at the stadium for the four-day match, while the Jio Cinema and Sports 18 changed their roster and decided to live-stream the game due to the high fan interest surrounding the former captain’s return.
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“He is still the same. He is the same Virat for everyone. In fact, on the first day of the training session, he went inside the dressing room and carried his own kit bag. Then, he practiced the entire day and carried his kit bag back to the dressing room.” Bhati addressed.
The next biggest aim for the 36-year-old will be to get some vital form in the game for Delhi and extend the same touch in the three-match ODI series against England. India will be hoping to get runs from his bat in the upcoming Champions Trophy 2025, as they will start their campaign against Bangladesh at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.