Kohli, Rohit Sharma to light up initial phase of Vijay Hazare Trophy

There is never a dull moment in Indian cricket for as soon after the T20I series against South Africa ended with the hosts winning it 3-1, the buzz has begun for the Vijay Hazare Trophy. The premier 50-overs domestic tournament, which normally does not create much ripples, will have Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in action for the first two games of Delhi and Mumbai, respectively, on 24 December.

Both icons, who played leading roles in the last two ODI series against Australia Down Under and South Africa at home, have agreed to play limited number of matches in this format with an idea of getting some match-time ahead of the ICC World Cup in 2027. The perception is that the team management (read: Gautam Gambhir and Ajit Agarkar) want them to make themselves available for few domestic matches, though sources in the BCCI recently maintained it was a call taken by the Big Two.

Both have been named in their respective squads on Friday, with Kohli lined up to play his team’s group games in Bengaluru with Rohit Sharma in Jaipur.  Kohli has last played this tournament during the 2009-10 season while he has scored an aggregate of 819 runs in 14 Vijay Hazare matches at an average of 68.25 and a strike rate of 106.08, including four centuries and three half-centuries. The Hitman, meanwhile, had turned out in the tournament last in the 2018-19 season.

Rishabh Pant, meanwhile, has been appointed Delhi captain and Ayush Badoni his deputy. Shardul Thakur, the seasoned international allrounder, has been named as captain of Mumbai. Delhi’s squad for the first-two matches also features Ishant Sharma and Navdeep Saini, who have made themselves available for selection. Harshit Rana, according to a DDCA media release, will link up with the squad once released from national duty after the T20I series against South Africa.

Mumbai Cricket Association, meanwhile, didn’t name other Indian stars like opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and India T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav. Jaiswal, incidentally, had to be hospitalised in Pune with acute gastroenteritis while playing a game in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Mumbai has been placed in the Elite Group C alongside Maharashtra, Punjab, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and Uttarakhand. They will open their campaign against Sikkim on 24 December in Jaipur.

Delhi's squad (first two matches): Rishabh Pant (c), Ayush Badoni (vc), Virat Kohli, Arpit Rana, Yash Dhull, Sarthak Ranjan, Priyansh Arya, Tejasvi Singh (wk), Nitish Rana, Hrithik Shokeen, Harsh Tyagi, Simarjeet Singh, Prince Yadav, Divij Mehra, Ayush Doseja, Vaibhav Kandpal, Rohan Rana, Ishant Sharma, Navdeep Saini

Mumbai squad: Rohit Sharma (two matches), Shardul Thakur (c), Hardik Tamore (wk), Ishan Mulchandani, Shams Mulani, Musheer Khan, Tanush Kotian, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Tushar Deshpande, Sarfaraz Khan, Onkar Tarmale, Siddesh Lad, Sylvester Dsouza, Chinmay Sutar, Sairaj Patil, Akash Anand (wk), Suryanash Shedge.