Virat Kohli’s Ranji Trophy record ahead of 2025 comeback for Delhi after 13 years | Cricket News
India’s senior batter Virat Kohli will mark his return to the domestic grind with a one-off appearance for his home state Delhi in the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 round seven match against Railways, starting Thursday at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.
Kohli’s much-awaited return has taken the spotlight in the last round even as 15 teams will be in contention to secure the seven remaining spots in the quarter-finals. The 36-year-old was recently scene rekindling his game after a lowly Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia ended with Kohli being peppered by deliveries outside the off-stump.
Following the recent BCCI diktat that the senior India stars are mandated to play in the domestic circuit, Kohli will don the Delhi jersey after 13 years, having missed out on the last round due to a reported neck sprain issue.
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Kohli’s last appearance for Delhi dates back to an entirely different era in Indian cricket, before his meteoric rise in the Tst set-up over the previos decade. Kohli featured in a one-off game in the 2012-13 Ranji Trophy in Ghaziabad, not far from his hometown. Turning up for Delhi, Kohli then met Uttar Pradesh at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Ghaziabad, scoring 14 and 43 across two innings in a match that his side lost by six wickets.
Kohli was accompanied by four other India internationals then, including current India head coach Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Ishant Sharma and Ashish Nehra. Meanwhile, the opposition attack comprised Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Praveen Kumar besides Suresh Raina and Mohammed Kaif. Bhuvneshwar had dismissed Kohli in both innings, marking his last Ranji outing.
Returning to the Ranji Trophy, Kohli has appeared in 23 matches previously in the premier red-ball tournament since his debut in November 2006 against Tamil Nadu in November 2006. Kohli fell for 10 in his only innings on debut but went onto compile five hundreds and as many fifties in his next 22 matches across six years. Kohli has aggregated 1574 in 36 innings, averaging 50.77.
Kohli’s highest Ranji score also came in Delhi, scoring a 267-ball 173 against Bengal batting at number three in November 2010.
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