Virat Kohli was barely a few months into his role as full-time Test captain when Rohit Sharma last featured in the Ranji Trophy, in November 2015. And when Kohli last played in India's premier first-class competition, in November 2012, Sachin Tendulkar was India's Test No. 4, and MS Dhoni the India captain. Both Tendulkar and Dhoni have now been retired for over a decade.
Kohli and Rohit, on the other hand, are now both at a crossroads as far as their Test careers go, and with the tour of England coming up in the summer, the two of them are among some of India's top players returning to the Ranji Trophy that resumes following a mid-season break for the white-ball competitions. Here is a primer to bring you up to speed ahead of the sixth round of matches beginning January 23.
Is Virat Kohli really in line for a Ranji return?
Kohli won't be part of the upcoming round due to neck spasms. However, he is believed to have communicated his availability to the Delhi selectors for the final round of the league phase starting January 30, when Delhi play Railways at home.
If he does make a Ranji return, Kohli will have four days to move from first-class cricket to the first ODI at home against England, with the series assuming great significance as it is India's final ODI engagement ahead of the Champions Trophy.
Kohli or not, Delhi have Rishabh Pant
Delhi will have the services of Rishabh Pant in what is a must-win game for both Delhi and Saurashtra, starting January 23 in Rajkot.
Pant will, however, not captain the side as Delhi are keen on ensuring continuity in that regard. The squad will be led by Ayush Badoni, who will play under Pant's captaincy at Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at IPL 2025.
This will be Pant's first Ranji outing since December 2017. He will line-up against Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja in the opposition on what is expected to be a turning Rajkot deck, with voices within the Saurashtra team management saying that's their best chance of forcing an outright result, which they desperately need to make a last-ditch effort to reach the knockouts.
Will Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal open together?
Mumbai vs Jammu & Kashmir at the BKC Ground should get plenty of attention. Mumbai, the defending champions, are very much in the hunt for a top-two spot in Group A, and will have in their line-up Rohit and Yashasvi Jaiswal - who could open the batting together - as well as Shreyas Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Shardul Thakur and Shivam Dube. The big absentee from this game is Sarfaraz Khan, who is recovering from a rib injury, while his younger brother Musheer Khan too isn't ready yet as he rehabs for a neck injury sustained in a road accident last year.
Rohit and Jaiswal's pairing at the top, if it happens, means Mumbai will find it incredibly hard to fit the in-form opener Ayush Mhatre, who has had a sensational initiation into top-flight cricket in 2024. Mhatre, who was part of India Under-19 at the Asia Cup, has already hit two first-class centuries in six matches. He also hit two hundreds in seven games for Mumbai in his maiden List A season that finished with the Vijay Hazare Trophy last week.
While Mhatre is still part of the squad, there is no space for another youngster Mumbai have punted on to deliver - 20-year-old Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who was one of the emerging stars for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) during their title-winning run in the IPL last year.
Shubman Gill will face Karnataka
The other game to follow is Karnataka vs Punjab at M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Shubman Gill, recently elevated as India's ODI vice-captain, will play for Punjab after enduring a tough tour of Australia, where he featured in only three of the five Tests; he was injured for the series opener in Perth and was left out of the Boxing Day Test owing to team combination. In five innings, Gill tallied 93 runs at 18.60.
His return to the domestic set-up comes at a time when his numbers outside Asia since June 2021 - he averages 17.64 in 18 innings - have come in for sharp scrutiny. His presence will, however, bolster a line-up that will be without Abhishek Sharma and Arshdeep Singh, with both part of India's T20I squad for the England series starting on Wednesday.
Karnataka, winners of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, will welcome the return of Prasidh Krishna and Devdutt Padikkal to the XI as they look to win their two remaining games to try and qualify for the knockouts. KL Rahul has informed the KSCA of his unavailability to nurse an elbow niggle ahead of the England ODIs and the Champions Trophy.
What are the injury updates?
Fast bowler Akash Deep and opener Abhimanyu Easwaran won't be playing for Bengal to nurse injuries that will need monitoring from the BCCI's Centre of Excellence. Akash Deep is out with a back niggle that also forced him out of contention for the Sydney Test earlier this month. Abhimanyu, who didn't get a game on tour, is believed to have fractured his middle finger on the right hand while playing a club fixture in the lead-up to the Ranji games. He will likely be out of action for three weeks.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Siraj isn't part of Hyderabad's squad as he has been asked to rest by the national team management as part of his workload management. Siraj played all five Tests in Australia, but has been left out of India's ODI squads for the England series and the Champions Trophy.
Who are the other players to watch out for?
Karun Nair is on a dream run, having finished the Vijay Hazare Trophy with five hundreds and 772 runs. With Vidarbha all but through to the Ranji knockouts, he'll have two league games and a maximum of three more games to try and get a place in the Test middle-order with the England tour coming up.