Former Australia player has backed Virat Kohli to perform well in the super 8 stage of T20 World Cup 2024. India play their first match against Afghanistan on Thursday.

Former Australia player Matthew Hayden has backed Virat Kohli to perform well in the super 8 stage of T20 World Cup 2024. (Photo: X)

New Delhi: Former Australian cricketer Matthew Hayden has backed Indian star batter Virat Kohli to come good in the Caribbean leg of the T20 World Cup 2024. India begin their campaign against Afghanistan on Thursday in Barbados and their next match is lined up on Saturday against Bangladesh. Hayden has said that his experience of assessing situations in the games and different surfaces make him a world-class batter.

Kohli, who emerged as the highest run-getter in IPL 2024 with 741 runs to his name, is yet to make any contribution in the showpiece event. He has registered scores of 1, 4 and 0 in the group stage matches against Ireland, Pakistan and hosts USA respectively. While the cricket fans are desperately waiting for the star power to fire in the tournament, Kohli himself is hungry for runs and keen on producing a superlative knock.

Kohli is a world-class batter

“Kohli, in any condition, has been a world-class batter. These venues in the Caribbean where you have to think about the way you construct your innings and think about also the kind of realistic totals that are possible in these different venues,” Hayden said on Star Sports Press Room.

“Outside of St Lucia, par scores are in the range of 160-170 and Virat, with all his experience, will be able to work out what to do, like hitting spin towards the windward side, depending on how significant it is,” he added.

“Virat is in a really good space, he’s had extremely tough conditions and no one would have liked that in the competition. Everyone wants to see these great champions being able to play freely and that’s going to be the case and experience counts,” Hayden concluded.

The former Australian star also backed Kohli to continue opening the innings for India during the Super 8 stage saying that it will be in favour of the Men in Blue.