Tag: Trophy

Virat Kohli celebrated his 24th birthday on the final day of his previous Ranji Trophy game, in November 2012, when he was a mere ten Tests young. As he closes in on his first first-class appearance for Delhi in more than a dozen years, Kohli is 36, has 123 Test caps, boasts 30 centuries and an average of 46.85 despite producing just three hundreds in the last five years.

In normal course, Kohli wouldn’t be playing against Railways in the final round of league games, starting on Thursday. He is coming off a gruelling five-Test tour of Australia (never mind his returns after the Perth century or the 1-3 score line), is recovering from a neck strain and will figure in a three-match One-Day International series against England from February 6, morphing into the Champions Trophy where India begin their campaign against Bangladesh in Dubai on February 20. But these aren’t normal times in Indian cricket. Defeats in six of their last eight Tests, allied with collective and repeated top-order meltdowns, have culminated in the Board of Control for Cricket in India insisting on its star players representing their states whenever available.

Laudable as that concept is, a more commonsensical approach would have been prudent. Instead, ahead of a string of white-ball internationals, the likes of Test and ODI captain Rohit Sharma, his 50-over deputy Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja (who all played in Australia and are in the ODI set-up) were practically compelled to play in the previous set of matches. That responsibility has been thrust on Kohli and KL Rahul in the latest round, in many ways a pyrrhic exercise because even if their respective teams make it to the knockouts, neither of these stalwarts will be available for selection.

Let’s stick with Kohli, him of 25 previous Ranji appearances. He will play under Ayush Badoni, like Pant did last week, against Railways at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in the national capital, in a nothing-to-gain situation. Railways, the two-time former champions, are perched ahead of Delhi in the points standings – 17 to 14 after six rounds apiece – but without any disrespect, they don’t possess the most threatening bowling attack. If Kohli makes a hundred, or a double or even a triple, big deal, right? After all, it is against Railways. And if he picks up another low score like he did in the last seven innings in Australia, his growing band of critics will have a field day. ‘Can’t even score against Railways.’

There is no denying the astronomic increase in interest levels and the dramatic uplift of the profile of the Ranji Trophy when the big names turn up for their respective states. The DDCA has been seized of the need to throw open multiple stands in anticipation of a rare occurrence – Kohli playing a domestic game – but token appearances don’t really serve any purpose. India’s next red-ball fixture isn’t until June 20, when they face England in the first of five Tests at Leeds. These Ranji Trophy runs will have little import by then, not with the IPL serving as the final competitive outing before that Test series. But given their losses to New Zealand and Australia, the players are left with no bargaining chips and have little option but to toe the line espoused by head coach Gautam Gambhir and selection panel chairman Ajit Agarkar.

One wonders what’s going through Kohli’s mind. Even during his worst phases – and there have been a few of those, especially in recent times – he has been short on neither intensity nor commitment. Let’s get one thing clear: Virat Kohli doesn’t play a game of cricket for the sake of it, out of a sense of (forced?) duty or responsibility. When he is on the field, he gives it all, like he has done from the time he started playing representatively two decades back. But nothing has energised him more than the scent of serious battle – international games, franchise action. There was a reason why Kohli stayed away from meaningless ‘practice’ games on overseas tours; he found it hard to rouse himself, given the relative lack of stakes. He has now been thrust into a situation where he has to lump it and dig deep to summon the fire whose flames have threatened to lick the sky from time to time, but which is increasingly losing sparkle, if not heat.

Himanshu Sangwan, Kunal Yadav, Purnank Tyagi and Karn Sharma (the leggie who played his only Test under Kohli, in Adelaide in December 2014). Hardly Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Scott Boland and Nathan Lyon. What does Kohli have in store over the next four days?