Sarah Waris was at the Arun Jaitley Stadium when Virat Kohli returned to the Ranji Trophy for the first time since 2012. It was nothing like she had ever anticipated.
The narrow lanes leading to the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi were buzzing with an electric energy rarely seen at a domestic fixture. By 3 am, fans had already started assembling outside the gates, some travelling overnight from Uttar Pradesh, their eyes bleary with sleep but hearts alight with anticipation. Their reason? Virat Kohli. The last of the modern greats, the biggest name in Indian cricket, had returned to the Ranji Trophy after 13 long years, and the Kotla was the only place to be.
The BCCI mandate, which ensured that top cricketers turn up for domestic cricket, had set the stage. When it was confirmed that Kohli would don the Delhi jersey again, the date - January 30 - was etched in every fan’s calendar. The tournament, often engulfed with empty stands, had transformed into a spectacle, with Delhiites reliving the nostalgia of watching their favourite son back on home soil.
You always knew it would be a game like no other, and we got a prelude two days before the match. The nets session of the Delhi team, usually a quiet affair, transformed into a carnival, with onlookers craning their necks for a mere glimpse of their hero. If for once, one glanced at the opposition, they would have found Railways, a team that had resigned itself to being a footnote. Their practice session on Wednesday, originally scheduled for later in the morning, was rescheduled to 7:30 am, a silent retreat in the face of the Kohli storm.
Without a doubt, security, typically an afterthought for a Ranji Trophy fixture, became a priority. The usual 25 personnel gave way to an army of 125 after swarms of supporters created an almost stampede-like situation while waiting for the gates to open before the start. By the time they were being let in at 9 am, the fans’ patience had reached its limit. But the personnel were unmoved, not passing the vibe check as they continued to carefully - and lazily - jot down the Aadhar Card numbers of each fan entering, their lack of rush contrasted with the impatient wave outside. It was a wonderful sight.
The gates, initially restricted to numbers 15 and 16, could not hold back the growing tide of fans, forcing authorities to open 17 and 18 as well, with murmurs of further expansions should the numbers swell. The Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) was prepared, yet caught off guard by the magnitude of the turnout. “We have to arrange food and have stalls for the next three days. We weren’t expecting such numbers,” an official admitted to Wisden.com. “However, free RO water is being provided.”
Outside, chaos brewed as the gates soon shut for an hour till 11 am due to plenty of VIP movement. The Feroz Shah Kotla, now renamed the Arun Jaitley Stadium finds itself in the centre of the city, at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, also called India’s Fleet Street, and sees plenty of important people move in and around throughout the day. On Thursday, it was prime minister Narendra Modi, making his way to Raj Ghat to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on Martyrs’ Day.
The delay only heightened the hunger of the waiting crowd, and when the gates finally creaked open again, the spectator-count surged to over 12,000, their voices merging into an overwhelming roar.
Such was the mania that officials had to dig deep into history to recall a precedent. “Maybe in the 80s,” the DDCA official mused, “when Kapil Dev took a hat-trick for North Zone against West Zone. Gavaskar was leading West, scored a hundred, and later said that was the fastest he’d seen Kapil bowl.” It needed Kohli to bring back that devotion almost four decades later.
On the field, as the stands reverberated with chants of “RCB, RCB,” later morphing into “Kohli, Kohli”, the man at the centre of it all seemed almost embarrassed. He began the day attempting, however futilely, to blend into the routine. But how does one merge in when the crowd only has eyes for them? Cameras panned to him incessantly, each gesture triggering fresh waves of delirium. At one point, he walked off the field, presumably for a short break. The moment his figure disappeared, silence fell. As he re-emerged, life at the Kotla flickered back, almost like a switch had been turned back on.
There was also an incident when a fan breached the fence, racing towards Kohli before falling to the ground, prostrating at his feet. As security intervened, Kohli, raised a firm hand, his fingers moving in a silent command - no force, no aggression towards him. It forced the Delhi Police to beef up security - for the remainder of the day, 11 personnel stood standing with rifles in front of the two open stands lest the scenes repeated.
They were left panicking when Kohli reached out to a group of young children after lunch near the boundary rope overlooking the Virat Kohli Pavilion, walking and shaking their hands. It would have been an unforgettable moment, for most would have grown up hearing of his legend. Now, they had seen it for themselves.
Kohli was everywhere - at the heart of team discussions, the axis around which the Delhi team revolved. Young captain Ayush Badoni leaned in, listening intently, the younger players soaking up every word of his. They followed him instinctively, walking in his shadow, their movements almost reverent. For most parts of the second session, Delhi also adopted a short-ball tactic to Karn Sharma, who eventually fell while hitting an upper-cut towards short third. We may never know, but discussions in the media room hinted at the ploy having his stamp all over it.
Long ago, Shah Rukh Khan once called himself the last of the Bollywood superstars. If that holds true for cinema, then Virat Kohli is cricket’s lone colossus, a man who commands the stage with an unseen force. On the face of it, this was just another Ranji match but it ended up being a game like no other, an event crafted for just one name: Virat Kohli.
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