The decision of Virat Kohli playing Ranji trophy match comes days after BCCI issued new guidelines for the players and their families. BCCI stated a mandatory participation of its contracted players in the domestic tournaments. For which, Virat Kohli has made himself available for the last Ranji trophy league match of Delhi against Railways which will be played at the Arun Jaitley stadium in the national capital from January 30. This has been confirmed by Rohan Jaitley, President of Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) and Delhi head coach Sarandeep Singh.

If Virat Kohli, the former Indian skipper plays the match, it will be his first in Ranji trophy since November 2012 long after 13 years. The senior selection committee had named Kohli in the 22- member team of Delhi for the game against Saurashtra under “subject to availability”. The list was later reduced to 21 players. Official list of the association’s website is said to be the team for the next two matches, still there will be a meeting to pick the final team for last group stage. The last round of the Ranji trophy will end by February 2 and Kohli will have to report for the ODI series against England beginning on February 6 in Nagpur.

With India’s continuous defeat in Tests, first against New Zealand back home and then Australia overseas; questions have been raised over the reluctance of the top players featuring in domestic first-class matches. Earlier before the tests last year, the top Indian regulars of the team including Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja skipped playing Duleep trophy.  

But after the review meeting of BCCI last week in the presence of Head coach Gautam Gambhir, Indian ODI and test skipper Rohit Sharma and chief selector Ajay Agarkar, strict decisions have been imposed on the players. Many first class players are returning back in their whites for the domestic league from January 23. And more in the January 30 fixture.

Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal will don their white jersey for Mumbai against Jammu & Kashmir, Shubhman Gill confirming for Punjab, Rishabh Pant for Delhi, Ravindra Jadeja for Saurashtra, Mohammad Siraj for Hyderabad and KL Rahul possibly for Karnataka.