When And Where Will Virat Kohli Make Ranji Trophy Comeback For Delhi After 13 Years?

Virat Kohli is set to make a comeback and play a Ranji Trophy match after 13 years for Delhi before joining the Indian ODI team for the England series and the 2025 Champions Trophy. The 36-year-old had a nightmare Test season with just 93 runs in six innings in the home series defeat against New Zealand while only making 190 runs in nine innings in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT).

“Virat has conveyed to DDCA president (Rohan Jaitley) and team management that he is available for the game against Railways,” Delhi head coach Sarandeep Singh told Press Trust of India.

Recently, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) issued a strict 10-point diktat for Indian players, clearly mentioning that domestic cricket is mandatory. Rishabh Pant, Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, and Ravindra Jadeja have confirmed they will play the first round (since the resumption) of the Ranji Trophy matches starting from January 23 but Kohli will not play Delhi's clash against Saurashtra from January 23 at Rajkot due to a reported neck sprain.

Instead, Kohli is set to make a comeback to the Delhi team for their Ranji Trophy match against Railways from January 30, scheduled to take place at the Arun Jaitley in Delhi. While Delhi did not include Kohli in their 21-man squad for the last two rounds of the league stage, a fresh squad is set to be named for the Railways tie.

Ayush Badoni will lead the side against Saurashtra despite Rishabh Pant's comeback after seven years. Several reports stated that Pant was offered the captaincy but asked the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) to continue with Badoni. It remains to be seen if Kohli is asked to lead or if the team sticks to their original leadership plan.

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