'Double your benchmark': Virat Kohli gives advice to young kid ahead of his Ranji Trophy return (WATCH)
Virat Kohli is all set to make his comeback to Ranji Trophy after a long gap of 12 years when Delhi takes on Railways at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Thursday, January 30.
Team India star batter Virat Kohli gave a piece of advice to a young kid during his training with Delhi team ahead of his return to Ranji Trophy at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Tuesday, January 28.
Kohli is all set to make his comeback to Ranji Trophy after a long gap of 12 years when Delhi takes on Railways at his home ground on Thursday, January 30. The 36-year-old was supposed to make his domestic cricket return for the Ranji Trophy match against Saurashtra in Rajkot last week, but he was ruled out of the fixture due to a neck sprain. On Monday, Virat Kohli was added to Delhi squad for the Ranji Trophy match against Railways.
Virat Kohli was reportedly captaincy duties by the Delhi selectors, but he declined it and asked the selection committee that he will be under the leadership of Yash Dhull in Delhi’s final group-stage fixture of the ongoing Ranji Trophy season. The Indian batting legend trained with the Delhi squad and interacted with the players during the practice. However, during the practice, a young kid, who happened to be son of Kohli’s former teammate Shavez who played together at age-group level, approached the former India captain.
In a video that went viral on social media, Kohli was seen giving an autograph when the young kid asked him, “Indian cricketer banne ke liye kya karna hoga? (What do I need to do to become an Indian cricketer?). To which the Indian batting legend replied that one has to put in a lot of hard work and always be better than others. He also said that always double your benchmark you have set for yourself.
“A lot of hard work. Your father should not tell you to practice or train. You should yourself say every morning that you want to go to practice. 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 (Whatever the benchmark is, you should do double of it)." Kohli told the young kid.
Virat Kohli will be among the star Indian star players alongside Rohit Sharma Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, and Shubman Gill to play domestic cricket on the direction of the BCCI selection committee and Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir following Team India’s disastrous Test tour of Australia, where they lost the five-match series 1-3.
Virat Kohli didn’t have an ideal Test series against Australia as he could manage to score only 190 runs, including a century, at an average of 23.75 in 9 innings. After scoring a century in the second innings of the Perth Opener, Virat Kohli failed to maintain consistency as his scores read 7, 11, 3, 36, 5, 17, and 6 in next 8 innings.
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In Ranji Trophy, Virat Kohli has aggregated 1574 runs, including five centuries, at an average of 52.46 in 21 matches. Kohli will look to entertain the fans by returning to the vintage form during the match against Railways at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.