Virat's return to Ranji after 12 years: Enthusiasm & passion seen in practice session
On Tuesday, the crowd in front of the gate of Arun Jaitley Cricket Stadium in Delhi was a little more than usual. This was also because Virat Kohli was going to participate in the Ranji Trophy practice session for Delhi after almost 12 years. He has declared himself available for the Ranji match against Railways starting on January 30. Just estimating the crowd of media, the sub-inspector standing at the gate told the constable standing with him that if this is the case then security arrangements will have to be increased in the coming days.
Anyway, Virat Kohli had reached the stadium as per the scheduled time at 9.30 in the morning in his black Porsche car. He entered the ground last among his Delhi teammates and started preparing for practice.
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First of all, he ran, in which Kohli started running last among a group of about 20 Delhi players, but after running half a round of the ground, this most senior player of the team was ahead of all his junior players. After this, he also participated in the team's 100-meter sprint session.
Then it was the turn of the football match, in which he was seen most active wearing a whip. He was not only giving accurate passes, but was also advising his teammates to pass in the right direction. After this, Kohli went towards the nets, which is built on the left side behind the stadium.
There, while talking to team manager Mahesh Bhati, he wore pads-helmet and with one of his special bats, he started knocking from half the pitch on throw downs in the nets. Special bat because this bat was a little thinner than the normal bat, in which the blade part was almost negligible. Kohli took throw downs for about 15 minutes.
After this, Kohli went to the other nets, where spinners were bowling. Here he faced Delhi's two left-arm spinners - Harsh Tyagi and Sumit Mathur and off-spinner Sumit Sharma - for about 20 minutes with his normal bat. There, Kohli was seen cutting short balls on the off side.
During this, Tyagi beat Kohli two-three times and some rising balls also hit the sticker of the bat. When Kohli went for a lofted drive on a full ball from Tyagi, the ball took the outside edge of his bat, for which head coach Sharandeep also praised him for beating Tyagi. However, during this 20-minute spin session, Kohli looked comfortable most of the time.
After this, Kohli again came to the main ground and started practicing slip fielding and then ground catching. This process also continued for about half an hour. After this, he came out of the 'Virat Kohli Pavilion' named after him, smiling and taking photos. After almost 12 years, Kohli had returned to Delhi's Ranji team.
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