The availability of Kohli, which was confirmed earlier this month, and Pant is expected to lend considerable depth and experience to Delhi’s batting order, especially with the BCCI making a rule that contracted India players have to feature in domestic cricket when international commitments are not on.

The Delhi team will play its first two Elite Group D games against Andhra and Gujarat at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, which serves as Kohli's home ground for his IPL team, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). The side is also scheduled to play the remaining five games at the Alur Cricket Ground, on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

Kohli will come on the back of being Player of the Series in the 2-1 win over South Africa in the ODI series, while Pant will be itching to get some game time after being an unused player in the recent 50-over fixtures against the Proteas. The duo will be available till India’s ODI series against New Zealand happens from January 11-17, 2026.

The Delhi team will play its first two Elite Group D games against Andhra and Gujarat at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, which serves as Kohli's home ground for his IPL team, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).

A further list of 50 probable players has also been released. They are:- Dev Lakra, Divij Mehra, Yugal Saini, Sujal Singh, Rajneesh Dadar, Aman Bharti, Govind Mittal, Sumit Beniwal, Shubham Dubey, Keshav Dabas, Rahul Choudhary, Samarth Seth, Shivam Tripathi, Anmol Sharma, Shivam Gupta, Lakshay Thareja, Manan Bhardwaj, Rounak Waghela, Mayank Gussain, Keshav R Singh, Laxman, Divansh Rawat, Pranav Rajvanshi, Pranshu Vijayran, Siddhant Sharma, Gagan Vats, Vansh Bedi, Rahul Gahlot, Vishal Rai, Samarth Singh, Sanat Sangwan, Aayush Singh, Sumit Mathur, Sampooran Tripathi, Vivek Tiwari, Hrithik Shokeen, Tejas Baroka, Saksham Sharma, Dev Dubey, Shivam Sharma, Rohit Yadav, Anirudh Choudhary, Vishant Bhati, Pranav Pant, Pankaj Jaswal, Ajay Guliya, Siddhant Bansal, Vikas Solanki, Divij Prakash and Suryakant Chauhan