India batter Virat Kohli linked up with the Delhi team on Tuesday (Jan 28) ahead of his Ranji Trophy match against Railways to be played from January 30 to February 2. Kohli will be playing his first domestic cricket match in Ranji Trophy for the first time since 2012. 

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Former India off-spinner and head coach of Delhi Ranji team, Sarandeep Singh, said that Kohli was the source of motivation for his young teammates during training session. 

The former India captain joined his Delhi teammates for football drills, shared laughs, and participated in 100-metre sprints before heading to the batting nets. 

Also Read: Ranji Trophy: Virat Kohli declines to lead Delhi team in Railways match

For around 15 minutes, he faced throwdowns delivered from the middle of the pitch. He dedicated five minutes to front-foot strokes and, in the remaining time, focused on handling back-of-length deliveries off the back foot. 

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The session featured a mix of defensive and aggressive shots. Although he was beaten a couple of times outside off, he also connected well, middling several pulls and short-arm jabs along the ground. 

Young players were feeling motivated while training with their idol Virat Kohli. It is good for domestic cricket. We had just cricket chat with Kohli and plans for the match were discussed. It was indeed a good day, Delhi coach Sarandeep Singh was quoted as saying to IANS. 

There has been a lot of pressure on the Indian Test players to play domestic matches after the abject batting failure in Australia, as the Indian team barely crossed 150 runs in its first innings of most of the Test matches. 

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Delhi, currently placed sixth in the Elite Group D table with 14 points from six games, are out of the knockout stage after losing to Saurashtra in their last match by 10 wickets. 

The final round of Ranji Trophy group games will end four days before India's first ODI against England in Nagpur on February 6. 

Kohli is part of the ODI squad for the three-match bilateral series in the lead-up to the Champions Trophy from February 19. 

(With inputs from agencies)