The final round of the Ranji Trophy Group stage is all about one man — Virat Kohli, who will mark his comeback to domestic cricket after more than 12 years. Regardless of Delhi’s chances of making the knockout stages of the premier domestic red-ball tournament, the Group D clash has already garnered all the limelight, thanks to the iconic batter’s participation.

Such has been the interest level in Kohli’s comeback that the Feroz Shah Kotla ground will have broadcasters joining the festivities gearing up for the live stream of the match, which leaves Delhi with a very slim mathematical chance to progress to the Ranji knockouts.

Advertisement

Interestingly, Railways have more than a fair shot at making the knockout stages if they beat Delhi with bonus points and take their tally to 24. In fact, Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh and Saurashtra are in a better position compared to these two teams in terms of probability of qualification.

But for the fans, the outcome is secondary as the magnetic presence of Virat Kohli in the encounter is what has garnered attention in the build-up to it. His last Ranji Trophy game for Delhi came against Uttar Pradesh in Ghaziabad in November 2012.

Now, following the BCCI’s diktat for all centrally-contracted players to play domestic cricket when not on national duty, India’s star batter is set to feature in a Ranji Trophy game. 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.

Kohli, on his side, will be looking to make the most of the outing and work on his shortcomings before the ICC Champions Trophy, irrespective of the outcome of the match.

If Delhi bowl first, the turnout is not going to exceed 3000, including the journalists, and broadcasters, but in case Delhi bats first, the number would soar infinitely in anticipation of the superstar’s batting.

“I have played against Virat bhaiyya in the IPL. It is an honour that in back to back matches I have now led Rishabh and Virat bhaiyya,” said Delhi skipper Ayush Badoni while confirming that the megastar will bat at No.4.

Kohli’s entry into the team could come at the cost of left-hander Jonty Sidhu, whose form has blown hot and cold in past few games as he didn’t get enough chances. 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 10 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, veteran Railways spinner Karn Sharma, who made his Test debut at Adelaide under Kohli 11 years back, incidentally the same game where the legend led India in red ball cricket for the first time, will be aiming to do an encore of Jadeja’s performance in Delhi’s previous contest.

Placed fourth in the standings, the Railways’ batting hopes rest on Vivek Singh, Upendra Yadav, Mohammad Saif, and captain Pratham Singh while fast-bowlers Himanshu Sangwan (who previously played for Delhi), Kunal Yadav, Purnank Tyagi, and Rahul Sharma will be gunning for the former India skipper’s prized scalp.

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.

Advertisement