Former India captain and batting stalwart Virat Kohli has been included in his domestic team Delhi's Ranji Trophy probables for the first time since 2019-20. Kohli is unlikely to play the Ranji Trophy since it clashes with India's Test assignments against New Zealand at home and Australia away, hence, his inclusion was a bit of a surprise. Not just Kohli, but Rishabh Pant, who played the inaugural match of the Delhi Premier League (DPL) for Purani Dilli-6, is also included in the long list of 84 players for India's premier domestic red-ball competition, which kicks off on October 11.
Kohli, who last played a domestic game in 2012/13 season for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy, missed the Duleep Trophy fixture in the first round, alongside Indian skipper Rohit Sharma when several current Test players got into the red-ball mindset ahead of the start of the long season for the national side.
"A fitness test for the selected players will take place on 26th September 2024. Players currently on international duty are exempt from this fitness test," a DDCA release read while announcing the probables list.
Most of the Delhi state players are named in the squad including many of them participated in the inaugural DPL T20, whom for the first time, everyone saw on the big stage. Pacers Navdeep Saini, Mayank Yadav, Harshit Rana, Himanshu Chauhan and Divij Mehra all found a place in the probables list, however, Ishant Sharma was the notable name missing from such a long list.
Delhi's 84-member probables list for Ranji Trophy 2024-25: Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Himmat Singh, Pranshu Vijayan, Anirudh Chowdhary, Kshitiz Sharma, Vaibhav Kandpal, Siddhant Bansal, Samarth Seth, Jonty Sidhu, Siddhant Sharma, Tishant Dabla, Navdeep Saini, Harsh Tyagi, Lakshay Thareja (wk), Sumit Mathur, Shivank Vashisth, Salil Malhotra, Ayush Badoni, Gagan Vats, Rahul S Dagar, Hrithik Shokeen, Mayank Rawat, Anuj Rawat (wk), Simarjeet Singh, Shivam Kumar Tripathi, Kuldip Yadav, Lalit Yadav, Prince Choudhary, Shivam Kishore Kumar, Shivam Gupta (wk), Vaibhav Sharma, Jitesh Singh, Rohit Yadav, Sumit Kumar, Anmol Sharma, Keshav Daba, Sanat Sangwan, Shubham Sharma (wk), Aryan Chaudhary, Aryan Rana, Bhagwan Singh, Pranav Rajvanshi (wk), Saurav Dagar, Money Grewal, Kunwar Bidhuri, Nikhil Sangwan, Puneet Chahal, Priyansh Arya, Yash Dhull, Prince Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mayank Yadav, Suyash Sharma, Arpit Rana, Divij Mehra, Sujal Singh, Hardik Sharma, Himanshu Chauhan, Ayush Doseja, Ankit Rajesh Kumar, Dhruv Kaushik, Ankur Kaushik, Krish Yadav, Vansh Bedi, Yash Sehrawat, Vikas Solanki, Rajesh Sharma, Tejasvi Dahiya (wk), Rounak waghela, Manpreet Singh, Rahul Gahlot, Aryan Sehrawat, Shivam Sharma, Siddharth Sharma, Parv Singla, Yogesh Singh, Deepesh Baliyan, Sagar Tanwar, Rishab Rana, Akhil Chaudhary, Digvesh Rathi, Sarthak Ranjan, Ajay Guliya
