Ahead of India’s focus on white-ball cricket for the ODI series against England in the 2025 Champions Trophy, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has urged all players, including Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, to participate in the Ranji Trophy. This comes after the Indian team faced a disappointing red-ball season, suffering losses to New Zealand and Australia.
The 2024-25 Ranji Trophy will resume on January 23, and with the ODI series against England scheduled to begin on February 6, the timing provides India’s key players with the opportunity to play at least one match after a two-week rest. Most of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) squad members, who are also part of the ODI setup, have been rested from the upcoming five-match T20I series against England.
According to a Hindustan Times report, the selectors’ directive to all players to participate in domestic cricket is particularly aimed at star batters who struggled in the recent series in Australia, as a way to help them regain their form and confidence.
“There’s no substitute to spending time at the crease to regain confidence. It is for the player, no matter how experienced, to realise it,” a BCCI official told Hindustan Times.
All contracted players, except for fast bowlers, have been instructed to feature in India’s premier first-class competition. Kohli and Rishabh Pant’s Delhi team is set to play Ravindra Jadeja’s Saurashtra in Rajkot, while Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal are likely to play for Mumbai against Jammu and Kashmir. Karnataka will face Punjab in Bengaluru, where KL Rahul could play against Shubman Gill.
The spotlight will be on Kohli and Rohit, as both have not played domestic cricket for an extended period. Kohli’s last Ranji Trophy appearance for Delhi was in 2012 against Uttar Pradesh, while Rohit hasn’t played for Mumbai in the competition since 2015.
Most of India’s top players participated in one match of the 2024 Duleep Trophy before the home series against Bangladesh. However, both Rohit and Kohli opted to rest, a decision that has faced criticism following their poor performances in the 2024-25 season.
BCCI’s Strong View on Kohli and Rohit’s Future
The report also reveals that while Rohit’s future in Test cricket remains uncertain, the BCCI believes that if Kohli wants to continue playing, he must return to his dominant form. “With Kohli though, there is a strong view within the board that if he is keen to play on, he should bat with pomp like before and for that returning to the basics may be necessary,” the Hindustan Times report stated.
However, there is no mandate forcing players to play in the Ranji Trophy. If Rohit and Kohli choose to skip the domestic competition, there will be no penalty, unlike the previous season when Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were stripped of their central contracts. The report suggests that skipping the Ranji Trophy without a valid medical or fitness reason could affect a player’s future selection for the Indian team.
