Former Indian National Cricket Team player Harbhajan Singh has made a bold claim, saying that the greatness of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) megastar Virat Kohli comes down to the strength of the Chennai Super Kings captain ( CSK), MS Dhoni, Chepauk.
Indian cricket greats MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli will be seen in action in the opening match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 on March 22 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai.
RCB will once again rely heavily on Kohli to deliver a sensational performance after being out of action for almost two months. The former RCB captain would be eager to start his season on a positive note by playing a good innings against MS Dhoni-led CSK.
Virat Kohli is the leading run-getter in IPL and has scored runs at different places in the country. However, he has not been able to perform well at Chepauk as he averages only 30 and has a strike rate of 111 at the place.
Overall, Kohli, who has not scored an IPL century at Chepauk, scored 985 runs against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Speaking on Star Sports ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, Harbhajan Singh highlighted that batting at Chepauk becomes difficult for the leadoff batsmen.
“Virat’s greatness has been reduced in terms of his overall performance there. He’s a tough place to hit, especially as an opening hitter against a kind of weird tennis ball-type bounce.
“They (CSK) have the great (Ravindra) Jadeja bowling stump to stump. It will make the weirdo spin and then the weirdo stay down. It is really complicated,” Harbhajan told Star Sports.
The great bowler advised Kohli to prepare to bowl a full 20 overs if he wants to play winning innings.
“If you are really prepared to bat for about 20 overs, then you can put up a winning performance because two hundred in the accessible Chinnaswamy does not necessarily guarantee the same in Chepauk,” he said.
It is important for him to have a season like 2016 – Harbhajan Singh on Virat Kohli
In IPL, Virat Kohli scored a total of 7263 runs in 237 matches at an average of 37.2 and a strike rate of 130. His best performance in the competition came when he scored 973 runs in 16 matches, with 4 centuries, in 2016 .made by Kohli in the 2016 season are yet to be broken. Several players have come close to it, but have not achieved it.
According to Harbhajan Singh, Kohli needs to replicate his 2016 heroics to play a role in Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) success. However, the great bowler is skeptical about RCB winning their first IPL trophy even if Kohli has a great season.
“It is important for him to have a season like 2016, because if Virat continues to score runs, the team will move forward. I don’t know if they will win the cup or not.
“But with the brilliant people they have in their team (Virat, (Glenn) Maxwell, (Cameron) Green and a few others like Patidar, I think they have very good batting. and everyone wants Virat to have a 20-rep.16,” he added.