In recent winter days of New Delhi, the sun shines intensely after the early morning cold goes away. As people bask in the winter sun for their Vitamin D intake, cricket fans in the national capital will soak in the sunshine at the Arun Jaitley Stadium from Thursday. Delhi, with a very slim mathematical chance to enter the Ranji Trophy knockouts, face Railways in their final Group D clash of the season starting on Thursday. Their knockout hopes hinge on many favourable outcomes, but the attention of fans thronging the stadium will be fixed on the talismanic Virat Kohli’s batting performance in the coming four days.
One should remember Kohli’s last Ranji Trophy game for Delhi came against Uttar Pradesh in Ghaziabad in November 2012. In those days, cricket wasn’t as hectic as it is now, while social media boom was still a few good years away.
Now, following the BCCI’s recommendation for Indian players to play domestic cricket when possible, Kohli is set to play a Ranji Trophy game for the first time in 12 years. A neck spasm delayed his Ranji Trophy return in Rajkot, but Kohli is now almost certain for his Ranji Trophy homecoming at a place where he began his journey to become an integral part of the Indian team across all formats.
At the centre of every move Kohli makes in the match against Railways, his batting will come under supreme focus on a green pitch, as claimed by Delhi captain Ayush Badoni, to try and get an outright win. This match gives Kohli an opportunity to spend valuable time in the middle and gain some much-needed fluency before heading to two consecutive 50-over assignments for India.
Dismissals outside off-stump largely defined Kohli’s struggles in the 3-1 Test series defeat in Australia, his unbeaten Perth century being a notable exception. Now coming into the Delhi team after working on his game with former India and RCB batting coach Sanjay Bangar in Alibaug, it will be intriguing to see how Kohli shapes with the bat in a game, where he’s the cynosure of all eyes and cameras.
With Rishabh Pant not available and Pranav Rajvanshi likely to come in, Kohli joining the sixth-placed Delhi team is a huge help for their batting line-up, which was completely outplayed on a Rajkot pitch that turned from the start, resulting in a crushing ten-wicket defeat for them.
Of greater concern to Delhi is the fact that they lost all ten wickets of their second innings between lunch and tea on day two. Moreover, the quality gap between Saurashtra’s experienced spinners, one being a certain Ravindra Jadeja, and Delhi’s young spinners, Shivam Sharma, Sumit Mathur and Harsh Tyagi, was evident too.
Now that Sharma, Mathur and Tyagi are back in Delhi, one would expect a better performance from them. On the other hand, after taking the first-innings lead against Assam in Guwahati, fourth-placed Railways’ path to the knockouts is straightforward: they must win outright or by bonus points against Delhi, and hope Chandigarh and Saurashtra lose their matches.
The exciting possibility of bowling to Kohli in a Ranji Trophy match presents a chance for fast-bowlers Himanshu Sangwan (who previously played for Delhi), Kunal Yadav, Purnank Tyagi, and Rahul Sharma to rise to prominence by outsmarting the batting stalwart.
The young Railways bowlers’ will also benefit from the experience and insights of veteran leg-spinner Karn Sharma, who’s shared the dressing room with Kohli for India and RCB. Railways’ batting hopes rest on Vivek Singh, Upendra Yadav, Mohammad Saif, and captain Pratham Singh to achieve a high score, especially with all eyes on Kohli in Delhi’s sunny yet chilly climes.
Squads-
Delhi: Ayush Badoni (c), Virat Kohli, Sanat Sangwan, Arpit Rana, Yash Dhull, Jonty Sidhu, Himmat Singh, Navdeep Saini, Money Grewal, Harsh Tyagi, Siddhant Sharma, Shivam Sharma, Pranav Rajvanshi (wk), Vaibhav Kandpal, Mayank Gusain, Gagan Vats, Sumit Mathur, Rahul Gahlot, Jitesh Singh, Vansh Bedi.
Railways: Pratham Singh (c), Vivek Singh, S A Ahuja, Upendra Yadav (wk), Mohammad Saif, B H Merai, Anchit Yadav, Karn Sharma, Purnank Tyagi, Kunal Yadav, Himanshu Sangwan, K T Marathe, Ravi Singh, Ayan B Chaudhari and Rahul Sharma
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Topics mentioned in this article