Virat Kohli fine-tunes backfoot play ahead of long-awaited Ranji return: WATCH

Virat Kohli (Pic: AFP)

It was an occasion to remember for the Sanat Sangwans, Arpit Ranas and Siddhant Sharmas but for Delhi's own Virat Kohli it was business as usual on Tuesday. It seemed he had left the star outside the ground and had turned up as their very own 'Virat Bhaiya'.

The 35 minute warm-up before an inconsequential Ranji Trophy final game against the Railways on January 30 was the longest that the senior team has spent to loosen up prior to net session.

There was a 15-minute game of football and he had some sprints down the wide right, also enjoying a laugh or two.

But once the net session started, the game face was on.

He quietly walked to the nets where skipper Ayush Badoni was batting.

Seeing Kohli walk towards the nets, Badoni was visibly conscious before the 36-year-old told him: "Ayush tu batting karle, phir dono switch karke karenge (Ayush you keep batting. After sometime, we will take turns to bat.)"

He spent close to an hour at the nets working extensively on his troubling back foot. At first, he took throw-downs where he kept playing the pull shot.

Once he had done enough knocking, Kohli entered the spinners' nets where he faced left-arm spinners Harsh Tyagi and Sumit Mathur. A few balls did grip and stop but there wasn't much bite in their bowling.

Ditto for pacers Navdeep Saini, Money Grewal, Rahul Gehlot and Siddhant Sharma.

Unlike India nets, Kohli hardly looked troubled although he did practice leaving a lot of deliveries. With the Champions Trophy round the corner, Kohli was seen trying to play a lot beside the line of deliveries.

Of late, he is concentrating on back-foot play and trying to increase his range of shots square of wicket. Obviously, before trying out in Champions Trophy, domestic cricket is good ground for a 'Pilot Episode'.

"He was very happy with the surfaces. He said, practice wicket, centre strip everything is of top quality. I told him credit to our young curator Ankit Datta. He said, 'Bhaiyya mazaa aa gaya batting karke. Kal phir aaoonga batting karne,' said former U-19 coach Mahesh Bhati, who is also the administrative manager of this team.

(With agency inputs)