Indian cricket team star batter Virat Kohli© X (Twitter)
India star Virat Kohli, who linked up with the Delhi Ranji Trophy squad at Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Tuesday, was the source of motivation for his young teammates while training ahead of their match against Railways, said former India off-spinner and head coach Sarandeep Singh. Kohli will be playing his first Ranji Trophy match after more than 12 years, his last domestic cricket match was in Ranji Trophy in November 2012. The former India captain joined his Delhi teammates for football drills, shared laughs, and participated in 100-metre sprints before heading to the batting nets.
Kohli padded up, put on his helmet, and opted for an unusual bat with a noticeably thinner blade than his regular ones—likely an adjustment to address the outside edges that contributed to his eight dismissals in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, only managing 190 runs. For around 15 minutes, he faced throwdowns delivered from the middle of the pitch. He dedicated five minutes to front-foot strokes, while the remaining time focused on handling back-of-length deliveries off the back foot.
The session featured a mix of defensive and aggressive shots. Although he was beaten a couple of times outside off, he also connected well, middling several pulls and short-arm jabs along the ground. “Young players were feeling motivated while training with their idol Virat Kohli. It is good for domestic cricket. We had just cricket chat with Kohli and plans for the match were discussed. It was indeed a good day,” Delhi coach Sarandeep Singh told IANS.
There has been a lot of pressure on the Indian Test players to play domestic matches after the abject batting failure in Australia as the Indian team barely crossed 150 runs in its first innings in most of the Test matches.
Delhi, currently placed sixth in the Elite Group D table with 14 points from six games, are out of the knockout stages after losing to Saurashtra in their last match by 10 wickets.
The final round of Ranji Trophy group games will end four days before India’s first ODI against England in Nagpur on February 6.
Kohli is part of the ODI squad for the three-match bilateral series in the lead-up to the Champions Trophy from February 19.
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