It was a forgettable Ranji Trophy return for Virat Kohli at Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium. While the Delhi team registered a dominating win over Railways on his comeback to domestic cricket after 12 years, Kohli, the batter, couldn’t shine in the game. Fans in huge numbers went to the stadium to watch Kohli, but they failed to witness him bat on the opening day as Delhi won the toss and opted to bowl first. One-down Delhi resumed their batting on the second day and fans kept eagerly waiting for Kohli, who was about to come in to bat next.
A wicket fell and did come Kohli amid a lour cheer from the crowd, however, his innings could not last long. He was bowled by an incoming delivery of Railways’ right-arm pacer Himanshu Sangwan. Kohli fell for 6 off 15 balls.
To add to the fans’ disappointment, Kohli could not come out to bat for the second time in the game as Delhi registered an innings and 19 runs victory over Railways.
While speaking about Kohli’s knock, former India batter Aakash Chopra said the only positive about the innings was that Kohli didn’t get out to an outside off-stump delivery.
Chopra’s comments came in regard to Kohli’s poor run in the recently-concluded five-match Test series against Australia where he was frequently dismissed on deliveries going outside off-stump.
“So many people had come for Kohli. They were waiting. On the first day, people were asking (Yash) Dhull and Sanat (Sangwan) to be given out as they had come to watch only Kohli. He played incoming balls well at the start. He got beaten on two consecutive away-going deliveries,” said Chopra in a video on his YouTube channel.
“Then he came to the other end, did a slight shimmy, hit a four down the ground, and then went forward similarly to the next ball, there was a gap between the bat and the pad, and he got bowled. The only solace was that he didn’t get out to an outside-off delivery,” Chopra added.