The BCCI and the coach Gautam Gambhir's mandate for all the Test players, if available and fit, to play the Ranji Trophy has had Virat Kohli, the Indian cricketing stalwart land in Delhi for his first domestic red-ball game in 12 years. Kohli was obviously the star attraction at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Tuesday, January 28 as he will feature for the Ayush Badoni-led side against the Railways in the seventh-round games starting January 30.
Kohli missed the sixth-round game as he was recovering from neck pain, following the gruelling Border-Gavaskar Trophy and will now be keen to get some time in the middle to reinvigorate his red-ball form before hopefully playing in the England series in June-July later this year. Kohli went through his motions with batting practice, slip catching and running through the day, however, the moment of the day belonged to the young Kabir Khan, the son of former Delhi cricketer Shawej Khan, who has been a long-time friend of Kohli and has played alongside him for the state team.
Kohli interacted with Kabir for a few minutes before their conversation went viral. The young Kabir asked Kohli what he should do to be able to represent India in cricket and 36-year-old gave him a golden advice.
"A lot of hard work. Mehnat karni padegi. Your father should not tell you to practice or train. You should yourself say every morning that you want to go to practice," Kohli said. "Koi ek ghanta practice karta hai toh aap do ghante practice karo, voh ek hi tarika hai (If someone practices for an hour, you do it for two hours. That is the only way.
"If someone scores a 50, you score a 100, and if someone scores a 100, you score a 200. Jo benchmark hai us se double, toh phir level up (Whatever the benchmark is, you should do double of it then only you'll reach a higher level). Keep working hard and always enjoy playing," Kohli further added.
Kohli scored just 190 runs in 10 innings in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy despite having a century to his name in the five matches against Australia. Kohli kept getting out repeatedly to the deliveries wide outside the off-stump and would be keen to work his way around that flaw as in England, if the issue persists, will be highlighted even more.