Irfan Pathan calls Rohit, Virat's return to domestic cricket "fantastic", hopes it becomes trend

After failing to live up to the expectations in international colours, the top Indian stars returned to domestic format in a bid to find their lost form.

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli and captain Rohit Sharma were the prominent faces of the Indian team, who turned up to find the batting rhythm while sticking to the basic principle.

While Jaiswal, Gill and Rohit featured in the previous Ranji Trophy round, Kohli returned to the competition for the first time since 2012 on Thursday. He attracted thousands of fans while featuring for Delhi against Railways.

Fans filled up the empty seats in the Arun Jaitley Stadium to see the hometown hero take the field against Railways on the opening day. Virat kept the crowd engaged by asking the fans to cheer at their best.

Irfan expressed his delight about the young budding talents playing with and against the likes of Rohit and Virat. He wished that the trend of Indian regulars playing domestic cricket would continue in future.

"It's great to see youngsters playing with or against players like Virat Kohli & Rohit Sharma in domestic cricket. It wasn't happening for many years, but it's happening now. This is fantastic for Indian cricket. Hope the current Indian regulars make it a trend to play domestic cricket," Irfan wrote on X.

Rohit's bid to resurrect his form came with a bag of mixed results. While featuring for Mumbai against Jammu and Kashmir, the seasoned opener returned with scores of 3 and 28 in his first Ranji Trophy game since 2015.

Jaiswal, who had his moments in Australia during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, opened the innings with Rohit. The young southpaw's unblemished track record in red-ball cricket was tainted with scores of four and 26 runs in both innings.

Gill fared well in his Ranji Trophy match, considering the performances of his compatriots. His team slipped to a massive defeat by an innings and 207 runs to Karnataka. But the flamboyant Indian opener dug deep and struck 102 from 171 balls, including 14 fours and three sixes to hold the second innings together with his individual brilliance. (ANI)