Virat Kohli declines captaincy ahead of Ranji Trophy return: reports

India star batter Virat Kohli has reportedly declined captaincy of the Delhi team ahead of his return to the Ranji Trophy.

Kohli made himself available for his domestic team Delhi to participate in the Ranji Trophy earlier this month in a bid to regain form and abide by the new BCCI rules, which made playing domestic cricket mandatory for all players.

He missed Delhi’s match against Saurashtra due to a neck sprain, however, he arrived in Delhi on Monday night ahead of the match against Railways and has been training with the team.

According to the reports, the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) had approached Virat Kohli to lead his home team upon his return, however, he declined the captaincy offer.

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The star batter emphasized that the team’s functioning should not be hindered and supported the young captain, Ayush Badoni, to continue leading the team.

It’s worth noting that previously, Indian wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant was also offered the captaincy but he also declined the offer owing to similar reasons.

For the unversed, Virat Kohli will be returning to domestic cricket after 13 long years during the Ranji Trophy match against Railways, which is scheduled to start on 30 January at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.

Delhi Squad for the clash against Railways

Ayush Badoni (c), 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

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