Virat Kohli Leaves For Delhi To Link Up With Ranji Trophy Squad

Virat Kohli (3)

The former India captain left for Delhi after a training session with former coach Sanjay Bangar

Deepansh Bajaj Jan. 27, 2025

Star Indian batter Virat Kohli left for Delhi to join his Ranji Trophy team after spending nearly a week working on his his batting technique in Alibaug, a coastal town near Mumbai as per a report. The report in Cricbuzz further stated that Kohli has been working closely with former India batting coach Sanjay Bangar at a Reliance cricket academy in the area. Also, Kohli recently unveiled a sprawling 10,000-square-foot holiday home in Alibaug, located in Maharashtra’s Raigad district.

A video of Kohli's training session with Bangar, who previously worked with him during his tenure with the Indian team and Royal Challengers Bangalore, went viral recently. Initially it was though that the video was shot in Mumbai but later it was confirmed that the video was shot in Alibaug. Kohli practicing with Sanjay Bangar isn't really a eye raiser as he has had the best time as a batter with Sanjay Bangar when he was the batting coach of the national team from 2014-2019. In this era Kohli accumulated 11,767 runs scoring 41 tons across format to claim the title of 'The King' and the world's best batter.

Kohli's batting has been under intense scrutiny in recent times for the dwindling returns with the bat. Despite scoring a century, he aggregated a lowly run-tally of 190 runs in five BGT Tests in Australia, triggering calls for either retire or get dropped. Current Indian skipper Rohit Sharma also had a poor run worse in fact than Kohli. Sharma scored a total of 31 runs and dropped himself from the final test in Sydney.

For now, though, the place of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma is safe as they are set to embark on for the Champions Trophy in the 50-over format, a format which the both the star batters have enjoyed playing in. But Kohli's similar and frequent mode of dismissal, on outside the off stump, has exposed deficiencies in his technique. Ahead of the Ranji game, Kohli trained with Bangar for close to a week before leaving for Delhi, where he will be playing for his home side Delhi as they take on Railways in the elite Group D game in Delhi's Arun Jaitley Stadium.

Kohli To Play Ranji Trophy After 13 Years!

Kohli has not played a Ranji match in over 13 years, with his last domestic first-class appearance being against Uttar Pradesh in November 2012.

However as the BCCI have no made it compulsory for the International players to participate in domestic matches a move, many players have liked it and are participating in the Ranji Trophy that saw Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja & Rishabh pant play for Mumbai, Saurashtra & Delhi respectively. Delhi though, are no longer in contention to book a place for themselves in the knockouts (6th place). The game though holds a lot of significance for Railways who are currently placed at 4th.

However, the spotlight is set to be placed on Rishabh Pant & Virat Kohli who are set to play domestic cricket before the all important Champions Trophy in Feb-March window.

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