Virat Kohli returning to the Ranji Trophy has become a bit of a watershed moment already with a record number of spectators seen at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.

However, former India opener Aakash Chopra has said that Kohli and other Test regulars seem to be treating the domestic first class tournament.

KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja are currently playing for Karnataka and Saurashtra while India captain Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shreyas Iyer all turned up for Mumbai in the previous round of matches. "Virat Kohli has become ready to play the game in Delhi at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. He was practicing with Sanjay Bangar earlier in Alibaug. He was trying to solve his back-foot and outside-off problems. So he has tried and now he is back at the Ranji Trophy level," said Chopra on his Youtube channel.

However, among the international regulars it is only Jadeja who is playing both of Saurashtra's matches in this leg of the Ranji Trophy. Kohli and Rahul had both missed the first round of matches for Delhi and Karnataka respectively citing niggles while Rohit, Jaiswal and Iyer are all missing Mumbai's ongoing match against Meghalaya. "Shreyas, Rohit Yashasvi have all given it (Mumbai's must-win match against Meghalaya) a miss. Ultimately, everyone has done the token job," said Chopra.

"Virat had not played (in the first match of the current round of the Ranji Trophy), so he is playing this match. Everyone else has marked their attendance. What does it tell you? Well what it tells me is that it is looking like a punishment posting. But first-class cricket is not a punishment. The fact is that it is a privilege for others that they are getting to play with you and it is a chance for you to find form," Chopra added.

India's batting decline in Test cricket

India have missed out on the World Test Championship Final for the first time after a rather disastrous run in the 2024/25 season. They lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in a decade 3-1 but more shockingly this was preceded by an embarassing 3-0 whitewash at home to New Zealand. India had never been whitewashed in a three-match Test series at home and New Zealand had won never won a Test series on tour in India. It also marked the end of a record-breaking dominant run for India in home Tests.

A sharp decline in the fortunes of India's batters were a characterstic of the team's form and Rohit and Kohli were at the centre of it finishing the 2024/25 season with the kind of averages that no one would've associated with them at their peak. Kohli averaged 22.47 in 19 Test innings in the 2024/25 season, despite scoring a century in the first Test against Australia in Perth. Rohit, on the other hand, cut a sorry figure throughout the season and finished it with a scarcely believable average of 10.93 in a whopping 15 innings.