Virat Kohli checks in for Ranji Trophy: Greets old friends, plays football before batting for an hour | Cricket News

Kohli is playing a Ranji Trophy match for Delhi after a gap of 12 years. Delhi will take on Railways from January 30 in their last group match.

Delhi’s team manager Mahesh Bhati greeted Kohli outside the Virat Kohli pavilion, handed over a packet and the duo burst into laughter. The jokes between Bhati and Kohli continued for the next three hours. Bhati proudly flexed about the fact that he had known India’s great since his U-16 days.

Virat Kohli in circle with Delhi teammates. EXPRESS PHOTO BY PRAVEEN KHANNA 28 01 2025.

Sanjeev Chaudhary, Delhi’s team physio quips after seeing a few known faces, “There is more crowd (media) today,” and informs which net will Kohli practice.

Kohli stepped down from the pavilion named after him with Bhati. The Delhi team playing football, stopped for a while as their head turned towards Kohli, whom literally all of them idolise. Barring Navdeep Saini (India teammate) and Himmat Singh (one season at RCB), Kohli has not played with anyone in the current Delhi team.

Following the usual handshakes, Kohli was joined by head coach Sarandeep Singh and batting coach Bantu Singh.

Kohli teamed up with Saini in the circle football. After a while, the team took a lap of the ground. Team manager Bhati was again in action, this time distributing bibs. The 20-member Delhi team was divided into two and played football with trainer Chaudhary donning the role of referee. During that 15-minute period, all the Delhi players were trying to impress Kohli, but the 36-year-old was easily the best player in the field.

Virat Kohli playing football. (EXPRESS PHOTO BY PRAVEEN KHANNA 28 01 2025.)

A short while later, Chaudhary instructed the Delhi players to be ready for the warm-up. Delhi captain Ayush Badoni gingerly walked towards Kohli and stood next to him during the warm-up. It was maybe to break the ice as after the warm-up, Kohli along with Badoni entered the nets at Hill B at 10:15.

And Kohli started his one-hour batting session.

At 10:25, he started by knocking with a bat without a sticker, which looked like a hammer. It was not a regular-size bat. The blade had no edges, it was just thick willow right from the handle to the bottom. He used it only for five minutes while receiving the throwdowns from half the pitch.

At 10:40, he switched to the second nets, where two left-arm spinners Harsh Tyagi, and Sumit Mathur and off-spinner Shivam Sharma were bowling in tandem. Batting deep from his crease, Kohli dominated the spinners. The main focus was on using his feet.

Twenty minutes later, he walked to the pacer’s nets and faced Saini, Sidhhant Sharma, Money Grewal, Rahul Gehlot and Mayank Gusain. Kohli again faced the seamers from standing inside the crease. The drives were there and he was beaten too. But the standout thing about his batting against the pacers was Kohli playing square cuts and square drives, which is a rarity.

With Kohli facing the Delhi bowlers, an eight-year-old Kabir Khan with a sketch of the player in his hands was asking his father Shawej Khan, a former Delhi cricketer, “Papa Virat Kohli sach mey aapke dost hai? (Is Virat Kohli really your friend?).” Shawej, who now runs a sports shop at Khan Market, smiled at his son and said: “He will meet us after finishing his batting.”

Shawej was right. Once Kohli was done with batting practice and he started to put his bats, pads and gloves in his kit, he shouted at Shawej.

Shawej, who has played with Kohli in U-16 and U-19 for Delhi forgot about his eight-year-old, who was awestruck standing outside the net area that his father is a friend of his idol. Kohli hugged Shawej, called up manager Bhati, and cracked a joke patting Shawej and the trio would indulge in a bit of laughter.

In those five minutes, Shawej forgot about his son, who couldn’t believe what he had just seen. Kabir later met his idol and took a photo, an autograph on his sketch of Kohli. He became an instant star among the TV journalists with everyone taking a byte of the kid. Meanwhile, Shawej refused to share anything from his conversation, “Just old stories.”

The Delhi training session was not done.

After finishing his batting practice, Kohli spent the next 15 minutes practising the slip catching.

Virat Kohli joins Delhi Ranji team during the practice session at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Tuesday. EXPRESS PHOTO BY PRAVEEN KHANNA 28 01 2025.

Meanwhile, trainer Chaudhary was putting the plastic cups for the last final session — the sprint. When asked if this was the longest training session the Delhi Ranji team ever had, he laughed and replied: “He has inspired everyone and is setting an example for others.”
A DDCA insider said the highlight of the two-and-half-hour Delhi’s training session was that it was the longest these boys have trained before a Ranji game.

He was true too after an exhausting session, most of the Delhi squad looked jarred but not Kohli, who signed off with a lap.