Virat Kohli celebrated his 24th birthday on the final day of his previous Ranji Trophy game, in November 2012, when he was a mere ten Tests young. As he closes in on his first first-class appearance for Delhi in more than a dozen years, Kohli is 36, has 123 Test caps, boasts 30 centuries and an average of 46.85 despite producing just three hundreds in the last five years.
In normal course, Kohli wouldn’t be playing against Railways in the final round of league games, starting on Thursday. He is coming off a gruelling five-Test tour of Australia (never mind his returns after the Perth century or the 1-3 score line), is recovering from a neck strain and will figure in a three-match One-Day International series against England from February 6, morphing into the Champions Trophy where India begin their campaign against Bangladesh in Dubai on February 20. But these aren’t normal times in Indian cricket. Defeats in six of their last eight Tests, allied with collective and repeated top-order meltdowns, have culminated in the Board ofControl for Cricket in India insisting on its star players representing their states whenever available.
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