Indian batting maestro Virat Kohli has been named in Delhi's squad for the upcoming seventh-round clash against Railways in the Ranji Trophy 2024/25.
Kohli had made himself available for Delhi's final group game after pulling out from the sixth-round clash against Saurashtra due to a neck sprain. He is now set to feature in the Ranji Trophy for the first time after 2012.
Meanwhile, a report in news agency PTI confirmed that the security for the match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium has been beefed up due to the game becoming a high-profile one with Kohli featuring in it. It also added that there is no live stream available as of yet for the Delhi vs Railways match in Delhi. While Kohli is set to make a return, Rishabh Pant, who played in the sixth-round fixture, is not in the squad for this match.
DDCA secretary feels Kohli's presence will provide great exposure to the young players. "Obviously, it is a great experience for our junior players as they will get to share the dressing room with Virat. If you look at our team, only Navdeep Saini has played alongside Virat in the IPL and for India. In fact, none of the players in the team have played with Virat in the Ranji Trophy. They can learn a lot by watching him," DDCA secretary Ashok Sharma told PTI.
The secretary also opened up on the security arrangements. "We know Virat's presence raises the profile of the match. Normally, we have 10 to 12 private security personnel for a regular Ranji match, but we will definitely increase security so that Virat can train without any disturbance. We have also informed the Delhi Police about the match," he said.
"Usually only one stand remains open for the Ranji trophy games, but Sharma said that three stands will be operational for this match. "Gate Nos. 7, 15, and 16 will be open to the public. We will arrange for drinking water, and the toilets will be clean and hygienic. Come and enjoy the match. Of course, there will be security checks before allowing the public to enter," Sharma said.
Currently, there is no broadcast for the fixture. Usually, big centres get one match for live streaming and Delhi had used it for their match against Tamil Nadu earlier. "We don't know if BCCI will make any last-minute arrangements since Kohli is playing but we haven't been intimated anything about the broadcast of this game. Normally all big centres get one live game allotted (TV or streaming). We had a game against Tamil Nadu which was aired live. The roster for broadcast is set months in advance," a DDCA official in the know of things told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
Squad: Ayush Badoni (captain), Virat Kohli, Pranav Rajvanshi (wk), Sanat Sangwan, Arpit Rana, Mayank Gusain, Shivam Sharma, Sumit Mathur, Vansh Bedi (wk), Money Grewal, Harsh Tyagi, Siddhant Sharma, Navdeep Saini, Yash Dhull, Gagan Vats, Jonty Sidhu, Himmat Singh, Vaibhav Kandpal, Rahul Gehlot, Jitesh Singh.