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Virat Kohli reportedly declined the offer to captain Delhi on his Ranji Trophy comeback.
Virat Kohli (left) and Ayush Badoni (PTI/IG)
It was an occasion to remember for the Sanat Sangwans, Arpit Ranas and Siddhant Sharmas of the Delhi cricket team but for Virat Kohli it was business as usual. It seemed he had left the star outside the Arun Jaitley Stadium and had turned up as their very own ‘Virat Bhaiya’ for a practice session with the team as he gears up for his first Ranji Trophy match in 12 years.
The 35-minute warm-up before an inconsequential final game against the Railways was the longest that the senior team has spent to loosen up prior to net session.
There was a 15-minute game of football and he had some sprints down the wide right, also enjoying a laugh or two.
But once the net session started, the game face was on.
He quietly walked to the nets where skipper Ayush Badoni was batting.
Seeing Kohli walk towards the nets, Badoni was visibly conscious before Kohli told him: ‘Ayush tu batting karle, phir dono switch karke karenge (Ayush you keep batting. After sometime, we will take turns to bat).”
Earlier, to make Badoni comfortable, he had also declined captaincy, just like Rishabh Pant did in the last game and Rohit Sharma did for Mumbai.
He spent close to an hour at the nets. At first, he took throw-downs where he kept playing the pull shot.
Once he had done enough knocking, Kohli entered the spinners’ nets where he faced left-arm spinners Harsh Tyagi and Sumit Mathur. A few balls did grip and stop but there wasn’t much bite in their bowling.
Ditto for pacers Navdeep Saini, Money Grewal, Rahul Gehlot and Siddhant Sharma.
Unlike India nets, Kohli hardly looked troubled although he did practice leaving a lot of deliveries. With the Champions Trophy round the corner, Kohli was seen trying to play a lot beside the line of deliveries.
Of late, he is concentrating on back-foot play and trying to increase his range of shots square of wicket. Obviously, before trying out in Champions Trophy, domestic cricket is good ground for a ‘Pilot Episode’.
“He was very happy with the surfaces. He said, practice wicket, centre strip everything is of top quality. I told him credit to our young curator Ankit Datta. He said, ‘Bhaiyya mazaa aa gaya batting karke. Kal phir aaoonga batting karne,’ Bhati said.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)
