In this season, he will have to face some of the world’s best spinners.
IPL 2025 is just a few days away, and the season will kick off with Kolkata Knight Riders taking on Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Fans will be excited to see their favourite player, Virat Kohli, in action on the opening day of the tournament.
Kohli has been a legend in the IPL, scoring over 8000 runs and holding the record for the most runs in the tournament’s history. He has performed well in almost every seasons.
However, he has been displaying a few weaknesses over the past few months, particularly with spin. We saw this during the series against England and also in the Champions Trophy 2025, where spinners often got him out and he struggled a bit to handle them.
In this season, he will have to face some of the world’s best spinners. Let’s take a look at four bowlers who can trouble Virat Kohli in IPL 2025.
Varun Chakravarthy is in great form at the moment. Last season, he took 21 wickets in the IPL and was a key player in helping KKR win the trophy. He also did really well in the Champions Trophy, where he picked up nine wickets in just three matches. Many batters are finding it hard to play him, and Virat Kohli might have the same problem in the first match of IPL 2025.
Looking at the numbers, Virat Kohli has made only 40 runs from 39 balls against Varun Chakravarthy in the IPL. His strike rate is 102.6, and he has hit just two fours and one six during that time. Even though Varun has dismissed Kohli only once, it’s clear that Virat has struggled to score freely against him. This might be a big challenge for him in the first match of the season.
Yuzvendra Chahal is another bowler who might trouble Virat Kohli in IPL 2025. Chahal got Kohli out once in the last season, during the playoff match. When we look at the numbers, Virat has faced 30 balls from Chahal and scored just 33 runs. His strike rate against him is only 110, which shows he hasn’t been able to score freely.
We also saw Kohli struggle against Adil Rashid in the recent ODI series. Since Chahal is a leg-spinner too, he could create similar difficulties for Virat in the upcoming season. If Chahal bowls well, Kohli might find it tough to score runs against him.
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Mitchell Santner has often flown under the radar, but he has caused problems for some of the best batters in the world, including Virat Kohli. In T20s, Kohli has faced 21 balls from Santner and managed to score just 22 runs, hitting only one four and one six. Last season in the IPL, Santner also dismissed Kohli, showing he knows how to bowl to him in the shorter format.
Santner’s left-arm spin has been a challenge for Kohli in other formats too. In the Test series against New Zealand last year, Kohli was dismissed twice by Santner in the Pune Test match. Now that Santner is part of the Mumbai Indians squad in IPL 2025, he is likely to feature in the playing XI. If they come up against each other, Santner could once again make things tough for Kohli.
Sunil Narine has always been a tough bowler for Virat Kohli in all formats, whether it is T20I, ODI or the IPL. Over the years, Kohli has found it hard to score runs against him. Even though he did well last season by scoring 21 runs from 12 balls at a strike rate of 175, his overall record against Narine is not great. In the IPL, Virat has faced 118 balls from Narine and scored 127 runs at a strike rate of just 107.6. Narine has also dismissed him four times in the tournament.
KKR will play RCB in the first match of IPL 2025 and Narine will be an important bowler for KKR, especially during the middle overs. Along with Varun Chakaravarthy, he could make things difficult for Kohli.
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