Virat Kohli, after delivering phenomenal performances in the first two matches of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26, was slated to be in action once again against Railways in his third match on January 6. Nevertheless, the coach of Delhi, Sarandeep Singh, informed that the Indian batter would not be part of that game.
Delhi was one of the two teams in the domestic tournament who had the Indian players assigned as per the BCCI’s instruction. They allowed national players to play a minimum of two matches in the domestic 50-over tournament. But he is not playing the sixth match for Delhi at Alur.
Kholi played two matches against Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat where he scored 131 and 77 runs respectively. His contribution played a major role in the side winning both matches. The ODI No.3 had been performing excellent even during the last ODI series against South Africa, where he had scored two centuries and one fifty in three matches.
After a short break, Kohli will report to the Indian camp on January 7 for the three-match ODI series against New Zealand. Although he was eager to play the domestic match on January 6, it would just add to his workload, thus making it more difficult for him to perform in the all-important ODI series.
Delhi have already won four out of five games and are very close to qualifying for the knockouts, so they will be missing Kohli’s services. The team will be playing this match at the top of the table in Elite Group D with 16 points, and the NRR separating them from Haryana in the next spot.
The likes of Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill have been the main attractions at the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26 matches and the ODI captain has all the limelight on him. On a different note, Iyer is going to captain his team, Mumbai, while Thakur is ruled out with a calf strain
What Virat Kohli Brings To the Table
The age of 37 years makes Kohli an iconic figure in the world of cricket, and he deserves to be included in the list of the best ODI players of all time due to his impeccable and classy innings. Thus, it won’t be any surprise to see Kohli coming back to the Indian No. 3 position in the 50-over format, which by that time will only be one year away from the ODI World Cup 2027, and the talks around Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s availability would only get louder.
Unless of course the pair keeps on delivering. The men in blue’s batting has revolved around the RoKo duo who are enjoying their heydays in the ODI format. Indian batting order is getting very competitive with a lot of players each trying to prove their worthiness. To cite the example of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad, they have done nothing wrong to be benched, but the ongoing fierce competition is the reason for their continuous exclusion.
Virat Kohli has changed his style though, and it is very evident in his recent performances. He is quite certain now that he is the bowler’s nightmare from the first ball – formerly he would need a while to settle in for that. He was impressively moved in the recent match series against South Africa.
The One Day Internationals in New Zealand will start on January 11, and it is expected that both RoKo will be there for all the three games. The 50-over series will be followed by five T20Is, which will take place in the run-up to the 2026 T20 World Cup, which will be hosted in the USA and the West Indies.