India batter Virat Kohli has confirmed his availability to play for Delhi in the domestic red-ball tournament Ranji Trophy 12 years after playing his last first-class match in domestic cricket. Kohli's availability was confirmed by ESPNCricinfo citing Delhi coach Sarandeep Singh as the source. 

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Kohli will play in Delhi's last round of group-stage matches against Railways from January 30 to February 2. Kohli's non-confirmation to play in the Ranji Trophy was getting a lot of reaction as other players including Rohit Sharma made themselves available.

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Kohli, however, had informed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that he won't be playing in Delhi's match against Saurashtra from January 23 as he is recovering from neck pain for which he took an injection on January 8 - three days after India's tour of Australia had ended, reported ESPNCricinfo.

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How many runs Virat Kohli scored in his last Ranji Trophy match?

Kohli played his last Ranji Trophy match against Uttar Pradesh in 2012. Batting at number 4, he scored 14 runs in the first innings as Delhi were bowled out for 235. In the second innings, Kohli scored 43 runs as Delhi scored 322 runs and set UP a target of 155 runs. UP won the match by six wickets.

Virat Kohli's Ranji Trophy stats

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Kohli made his debut for Delhi in 2006 against Tamil Nadu before playing his last match in 2012. In six years, the former Indian skipper went on to play 23 matches - scoring 1,574 runs at an average of 50.70.

Overall, Kohli has played 155 first-class matches (including his 123 Tests) and has scored 11,479 runs (including 9,230 Test runs) at an average of 55.96 with 37 hundreds (30 in Tests) and 39 fifties (31 in Tests).

The decision to play in domestic cricket comes days after the BCCI made it mandatory for players to play in the new policy.