Prize scalp: Railways’ Himanshu Sangwan celebrates after dismissing Delhi’s Virat Kohli on the second day of their Ranji Trophy cricket match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, in New Delhi, Friday, Jan. 31, 2025.
| Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

Himanshu Sangwan had taken 77 wickets in First Class cricket before featuring for Railways against Delhi in the Ranji Trophy this week. The 29-year-old will add many more to that tally in the years ahead. The right-arm medium-pacer’s 78th wicket, though, will be imprinted in his memory for as long as he lives.

There aren’t too many bowlers in India’s domestic cricket landscape who can claim to have Virat Kohli among their scalps. Certainly not in the emphatic fashion that Sangwan did, nipping the ball back between bat and pad and uprooting the off-stump when Kohli had scored just six.

That Sangwan’s moment of reckoning arrived in front of a crowd anticipating a Kohli special added to the theatre.

“Yes, it is definitely the most important wicket of my career. Kohli is an inspiration to cricketers in India,” Sangwan told reporters at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.

While Kohli was a recurring victim to edging the ball outside off-stump in Australia, Sangwan found success on Friday by attacking the stumps.

“We just wanted to stick to the basics while bowling to Kohli. All the Delhi batters like to play attacking shots. We let them commit mistakes and get out,” he said.

Sangwan, a senior ticket collector at the Old Delhi railway station, belongs to Haryana. While he spent his early life in Rajasthan, he moved to Najafgarh, a town on the outskirts of Delhi that Virender Sehwag hails from, around 15 years ago to pursue cricket seriously. He played for Delhi U-19s alongside Rishabh Pant in 2013-14 before establishing a career with Railways.