In the 7th match of IPL 2025, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) star batsman Virat Kohli will face the dangerous spin attack of Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Kohli’s record at the MA Chidambaram Stadium has not been anything special, where Kohli’s struggle against spin is clearly visible. Will Kohli be able to break his bad record of Chepauk this time, or will the spinners of CSK spoil his game again?
The 7th match of IPL 2025 will be played on Friday, 28 March between Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad. Last season, the last league match of both the teams was a high-voltage match, in which RCB defeated CSK by 27 runs and made its place in the playoffs. In IPL 2024, RCB made a stunning comeback by winning 6 consecutive matches.
Virat Kohli was the hero of RCB’s dream comeback in IPL 2024, who changed his game and won the match for the team, Virat has also made a great start in IPL 2025. In his first match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Kohli showed his class by scoring 59 runs in just 36 balls. Kohli made the chase of 175 runs easy by hitting 9 fours and 2 sixes at KKR’s home.
Virat Kohli maintained his IPL 2024 form in IPL 2025 and showed his class against the spinners of KKR. Kohli showed his aggressive style by hitting Varun Chakravarthy with a six and a boundary. The opening batsman played fearless strokes without any hesitation, ignoring the dominance of the bowlers and sent them across the boundary line.
There is a lot of expectation from Virat Kohli that he will continue his excellent form even against RCB’s biggest rivals. But Chennai Super Kings (CSK) spin-trio Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Noor Ahmad will emerge as an even bigger challenge for Kohli as well as RCB. This same spin trio had troubled the Mumbai Indians (MI) batsmen a lot in CSK’s first match.
Kohli’s poor record at Chepauk
The pitch of MA Chidambaram Stadium is completely different from the pitches of other grounds this season, where the same old low-scoring game was seen in the opening match. Virat Kohli’s record in Chepauk while playing for RCB is not so good. He has scored only 394 runs in 14 innings here, with an average of 28.14 and a strike rate of 108.24.
Virat Kohli vs Spin
| Year | Runs | BF | SR | Wks | Ave | Dot% | Bnd% | Sweep% |
| 2020 | 220 | 202 | 108.91 | 2 | 110 | 27.1 | 6.43 | 1 |
| 2021 | 134 | 134 | 100 | 3 | 44.66 | 36 | 8.95 | 2.2 |
| 2022 | 107 | 99 | 108.08 | 4 | 26.75 | 31 | 8.08 | 1 |
| 2023 | 238 | 211 | 112.79 | 5 | 47.6 | 25.4 | 9.95 | 1.9 |
| 2024 | 292 | 213 | 137.08 | 5 | 58.4 | 28.5 | 15.02 | 10.6 |
| 2025 | 24 | 20 | 120 | 0 | – | 20 | 10 | 20 |
Star batsman Virat Kohli’s record at Chepauk Stadium is nothing special, he has scored only two fifty plus scores while playing at this ground. In IPL 2025, Kohli will have to enter the field with tactical preparation and will have to achieve another victory against spin bowlers. In the initial matches of IPL 2024, Kohli’s struggles against spin came to the fore, but in the second half of the season, he played spin bowling very well.
In IPL 2024, Virat Kohli scored 319 runs in his first 6 innings at a strike rate of 141.77, in which he hit 29 fours and 12 sixes. But in the second half of the season, Kohli showed a wonderful change in his game. In the next 9 innings, he scored 422 runs at a strike rate of 166.14 and stunned the bowlers by hitting 33 fours and 26 sixes.
Star batsman of the team Virat Kohli has started his preparation for the blockbuster match of IPL 2025. He was seen facing left-arm spinners in the nets, as if he was preparing to face Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) dangerous spinner Noor Ahmad. Noor Ahmed had performed brilliantly in his first match by taking 4 wickets.
Virat Kohli had a similar practice session before the match against Pakistan in Champions Trophy 2025, where he faced left-arm spinners. Kohli had scored a century in that match and given India the win. Now RCB fans are hopeful that Kohli will repeat the same performance against CSK. RCB supporters will be praying that wearing jersey number 18, Kohli continues his match-winning form and takes the team forward on the path of giving them their first IPL title.