On a day when India skipper Rohit Sharma confirmed his availability for Mumbai’s next Ranji Trophy game against Jammu and Kashmir, megastar Virat Kohli intimated that he won’t be there for Delhi’s fixture against Saurashtra in Rajkot due to a neck niggle.The Ranji Trophy resumes on January 23.The Delhi selection committee had initially picked a 22-member provisional squad and Kohli’s participation was subject to availability. The squad was picked on Friday by the KP Bhaskar-chaired panel but was not officially released as Delhi & Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) president Rohan Jaitley was waiting to get a confirmation on the star batter’s availability.“Kohli has been advised rest because of a neck sprain sustained during the final Test against Australia at Sydney. He is not available for the Saurashtra game. About the Railways game, which is also Delhi’s last league encounter, we are still not sure,” a senior DDCA official told PTI on conditions of anonymity.Kohli has last played a Ranji Trophy match way back in 2012, against Uttar Pradesh at Ghaziabad’s Mohan Nagar. Ironically, the legendary Sachin Tendulkar played his final Ranji game against Haryana at Lahli in 2013.After the BCCI made Ranji Trophy participation mandatory, only two among all star batters are missing out--Kohli for Delhi and KL Rahul for Karnataka due to an elbow niggle.Earlier, Rohit, after confirming his availability for Mumbai’s next game, stressed on the need to take time off from a busy calendar amid the clamour for star players’ participation in domestic cricket. Rohit also said that no player takes premier domestic red-ball tournament “for granted”.The India skipper said: “Last 6-7 years, if you go back and look at our calendar, there hasn’t been a time where we were sitting at home for 45 days and there is (domestic) cricket going on. You do get that time when you finish IPL and if there’s nothing happening (in domestic cricket) right after that...” Rohit said. “But if you see our domestic season, it starts in October, maybe September, and it gets over by February-March and that is the time India plays a lot of cricket as well.”
