Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli return to Vijay Hazare Trophy, boosting hopes for 2027 World Cup selection while top stars showcase their form.
When they play for their respective state teams in the Vijay Hazare Trophy matches on Wednesday, all eyes will be on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
Kohli and Rohit last participated in the competition in 2010–11 and 2017–18, respectively. It is evident from their participation in the home tournament that they intend to maintain improving in order to qualify for the 2027 World Cup.
Rohit has stated that he will play in Mumbai’s opening two games in Jaipur on Wednesday against Sikkim and December 26 against Uttarakhand.
Kohli has not yet chosen which two or three games he will play for Delhi. He had been preparing in Mumbai with former India batting coach Sanjay Bangar.
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Delhi, captained by Rishabh Pant, will play Andhra in Bengaluru on Wednesday at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) to begin their Elite Group D campaign.
In addition to the Ro-Ko show, there are a number of other intriguing pairings to investigate.
Pant would be keen to revive his chances of being selected for the white-ball squads. Since August 2024, neither ODIs nor T20Is have seen the wicketkeeper-batter play for the nation.
Shubman Gill, however, will be getting up after the selectors decided not to include him in the squad for the forthcoming T20 World Cup. He will play for Punjab in their match against Maharashtra in Jaipur.
Gill will use it as a good warm-up before leading India in the three-match ODI series against New Zealand next month.
Additionally, T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav, who has battled with his form, will have a timely chance to silence the naysayers throughout the competition. Surya has not scored a half-century in 22 innings when batting at No. 3 and No. 4 in Twenty20 Internationals over the past year, averaging a pitiful 12.84 and hitting at a scorching 117.87.
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The T20I captain has insisted that he has been hitting the ball well in the nets, but he still needs to show that he is capable of fulfilling his commitments.
The 50-over format will also give players like Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, and Ishan Kishan—who helped Jharkhand win the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy earlier this month—an opportunity to prove themselves.
As the reigning champs, Karnataka has benefited from Karun Nair’s
Go back. Last season, Nair averaged 389.5 runs per eight innings, scoring 779 runs, including six hundreds.