Will Virat Kohli play Delhi vs Andhra match in Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26?

Delhi will face Andhra Pradesh in their first match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26.

Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26 is set to commence on December 24, with a total of 32 teams battling for the trophy. India’s domestic one-day cup tournament will start on December 24 and witness the final on January 18. All 32 teams are part of the Elite Group.

Delhi are placed in Group D along with Haryana, Saurashtra, Gujarat, Services, Odisha, Railways, and Andhra Pradesh. Delhi will face Andhra in their first game of the tournament.

But the question among fans is whether star Indian batsman Virat Kohli will play in this match? Now, Delhi’s head coach, Sarandeep Singh, has confirmed that Virat is charged up and ready for the team’s first game of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Delhi’s games in Bengaluru are scheduled to take place at Chinnaswamy Stadium. However, the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) might host the match. It is being played at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in front of empty stands.

In actuality, no one wants to take any chances following the sad events of June 3, when Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s IPL victory parade resulted in 11 fatalities and 56 injuries. It would be wise to take Kohli’s matches to a remote location like the CoE because he is a cult figure in that part of the world.

“He is ready to rock”- Delhi’s Sarandeep Singh on Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli will be part of Delhi’s XI for their first game against Andhra, Delhi coach Sarandeep Singh has confirmed.

“Virat is charged up; he is ready to rock. He is playing tomorrow,” Sarandeep Singh told RevSportz over the phone, as the coach confirmed that Kohli would be playing.

Rohit Sharma is scheduled to attend Mumbai’s opening Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26 match against Sikkim on Wednesday from Jaipur, around a thousand miles away.  

According to BCCI rules, all centrally contracted cricketers are required to play domestic cricket whenever they are available. A major change has been made to the country’s top 50-over domestic tournament.

“All the senior players, all the players who are playing at the highest level, are coming back to play for their respective states,” stated Sarandeep.

Sarandeep also spoke about changes in the dressing room after Kohli joined the Delhi team.

“When a player like Virat enters the dressing room, things are totally changed. Youngsters look up to him. He is their idol. Everyone wants to be like him — how he is training, how he is doing his workouts, everything… There are a lot of things to learn from the senior players,” Sarandeep said.

There is no doubt that Kohli is playing in the Vijay Hazare Trophy solely to get some game time before the ODI series against New Zealand next month.

Delhi’s squad for Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26-

Rishabh Pant (C), Ayush Badoni, Anuj Rawat, Priyansh Arya, Tejasvi Dahiya, Yash Dhull, Virat Kohli, Nitish Rana, Sarthak Ranjan, Rohan Rana, Harshit Rana, Prince Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Ishant Sharma, Hritik Shokeen, Simarjeet Singh, Ayush Doseja, Harsh Tyagi, Vaibhav Kandpal, Divij Mehra, and Arpit Rana.

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