Matthew Hayden highlights Virat Kohli’s poor performance against CSK, saying, “The greatness of Virat has been reduced.”

Former cricketer Matthew Hayden of the Chennai Super Kings has weighed in on the significance of two of Indian cricket’s titans, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli. Despite his outstanding performance in previous years, Hayden emphasized Kohli’s struggles against CSK since the 2021 IPL. He also emphasized how, in IPL face-offs, Dhoni has approached the elite Indian batsman in a different way over the years. The former Australia opener boldly declared that the “greatness of Virat has been reduced” while highlighting his statistics versus CSK.

For those who don’t know, Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore will play their first-ever IPL 2024 match on March 22 in Chennai. Similar to a southern derby, Hayden predicted that this would be a high-stakes match between the two. Because of his fairly lackluster performance against the venerable adversaries, who have been Kohli’s opponents since the 14th season of the IPL, his apprehension was evident.

Although Virat has a strong record against the Chennai Super Kings, MS Dhoni has changed his approach to the powerplay starting in 2021. He has been out on power plays in three of the last five innings. Virat Kohli will essentially be recognized in every game this year, so one thing is certain—it is going to be a spectacular showdown. Hayden stated, as cited by the Hindustan Times, “His average is 30 at Chepauk Stadium with a strike rate of 111.”

“Therefore, that immediately demonstrates that Virat’s total performance at that location has diminished in excellence. It’s a challenging place to bat, especially for an opening batsman facing a strange bounce similar to that of a tennis ball. It’s quite slow and challenging, especially if he wants to play his strokes early. However, the longer he appears to bat, the more opportunities there are for Virat to score, he continued.

Virat Kohli will celebrate his arrival in public with an RCB unbox function.

After avoiding the spotlight, the 35-year-old is probably going to make his first public appearance on March 19 at the RCB unboxing event. He hadn’t played since the series in South Africa. Due to the impending birth of his second child, he had taken a break from playing cricket. The previous captain of India withdrew during the series and did not play in the five-match contest against England, even though he had originally signed up for the last leg of the Test series.