"Benchmark hai us se double" - Virat Kohli's advice to young kid during Ranji Trophy 2024-25 practice [Watch]

Former Team India captain Virat Kohli trained with the Delhi team at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday, January 28, as he gears up the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 match against Railways. During the practice session, the ace batter interacted with a young boy named Kabir.

Kabir is the son of Shavez, who played age-group cricket with Kohli. A video surfaced on social media, in which the young boy can be heard asking the star cricketer, 'What do I need to do to become an Indian cricketer?'.

Giving the kid a valuable piece of advice, Kohli responded:

"A lot of hard work. Your father should not tell you to practice or train. You should yourself say every morning that you want to go to practice. If someone practices for an hour, you do it for two hours. That is the only way. If someone scores a 50, you score a 100, and if someone scores a 100, you score a 200. Jo benchmark hai us se double (Whatever the benchmark is, you should do double of it)."

Virat Kohli will return to Ranji Trophy after a gap of more than 12 years. He will play under Ayush Badoni's captaincy, after reportedly declining the opportunity to lead Delhi in their final group-stage match of the season. The game between Delhi and Railways will kick off at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Thursday, January 30.

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Virat Kohli practiced with former Team India batting coach before joining Delhi team ahead of Ranji Trophy 2024-25 match against Railways

Several top Indian players like Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja and Yashasvi Jaiswal played in the recently concluded round of the ongoing Ranji Trophy 2024-25. While Virat Kohli was also expected to feature in Delhi's match against Saurashtra, he missed the game due to a neck sprain.

Ahead of his much-anticipated return to domestic cricket, the senior player was seen working on his backfoot game under the watchful eyes of former India batting coach Sanjay Bangar in Mumbai. Bangar has also worked with Kohli during the former's stint as the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) head coach in 2022 and 2023.

Kohli was last seen in action during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 series in Australia. Barring his 100*-run knock in the series opener in Perth, he failed to make a significant impact with the bat on the tour, finishing with 190 runs across nine innings at an average of 23.75.