Virat Kohli will be making his Ranji Trophy return for Delhi in the team’s upcoming final group match against Railways at the Arun Jaitley Stadium starting January 30. This will be Kohli's first Ranji match since he played against Uttar Pradesh at Ghaziabad's Mohan Nagar in 2012.

Virat Kohli was named in the Delhi squad for the last two Ranji games but missed the previous match due to a neck sprain. He is expected to train with the Delhi team, captained by Ayush Badoni.

"Obviously, it is a great experience for our junior players as they will get to share the dressing room with Virat. If you look at our team, only Navdeep Saini has played alongside Virat in the IPL and for India. In fact, none of the players in the team have played with Virat in the Ranji Trophy. They can learn a lot by watching him," DDCA secretary Ashok Sharma told PTI.

Asked about the arrangements for the game, Sharma said, "We know Virat's presence raises the profile of the match. Normally, we have 10 to 12 private security personnel for a regular Ranji match, but we will definitely increase security so that Virat can train without any disturbance. We have also informed the Delhi Police about the match."

While Ranji matches are free for fans, they typically open one stand; however, for this match, the DDCA will open three stands at the Ambedkar Stadium End.

"Gate Nos. 7, 15, and 16 will be open to the public. We will arrange for drinking water, and the toilets will be clean and hygienic. Come and enjoy the match. Of course, there will be security checks before allowing the public to enter," Sharma said.

While Kohli's involvement makes the Delhi against Railways match the most high-profile domestic game in recent memory, there is some bad news for fans: there is presently no plan to broadcast the showpiece showdown.

"We don't know if BCCI will make any last-minute arrangements since Kohli is playing but we haven't been intimated anything about the broadcast of this game. Normally all big centres get one live game allotted (TV or streaming). We had a game against Tamil Nadu which was aired live. The roster for broadcast is set months in advance," a DDCA official in the know of things told PTI.

The decision to live telecast Mumbai vs J&K game was taken much earlier and it was coincidental that India captain Rohit Sharma and rising star Yashasvi Jaiswal were part of the game.

"In the next round, the main match that will be televised as well as live-streamed is Karnataka versus Haryana at Chinnaswamy. Two more matches will be streamed. One of those is Bengal vs Punjab at Eden Gardens. There is a streaming of a third match but as of now it doesn't involve Delhi," a BCCI official informed.

Even if the BCCI agrees to set up live streaming within the next 48 hours, it will be a logistical problem, needing a multi-camera setup and personnel delegation.

Delhi squad:

Ayush Badoni (captain), Virat Kohli, Pranav Rajvanshi (wk), Sanat Sangwan, Arpit Rana, Mayank Gusain, Shivam Sharma, Sumit Mathur, Vansh Bedi (wk), Money Grewal, Harsh Tyagi, Siddhant Sharma, Navdeep Saini, Yash Dhull, Gagan Vats, Jonty Sidhu, Himmat Singh, Vaibhav Kandpal, Rahul Gehlot, Jitesh Singh.