Since India’s 184-run defeat during the fourth of the five-match series in the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), to go 2-1 down in the fifth and final game and find themselves far from retaining the precious title and winning the qualification tickets for the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 final, the pressure has been immense on their veteran batters.
The captain and former leader of the side, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, respectively, have failed in the ongoing series. None of the batters were in great touch with the bat in the lead-up to the series at home against New Zealand, with under 100 collective runs in six innings for each.
Rohit missed India’s very first game of the series at the Optus Stadium in Perth, which the Blue Brigade went on to win by 295 runs under the leadership of Jasprit Bumrah, but since his arrival down under, his form never ticked off. The right-handed batter was slotted in the middle order of the department for the first two Tests in Adelaide and Brisbane before being promoted to the opening position, which dropped to KL Rahul at number three.
Surinder Khanna requests India to look beyond Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in Tests
But nothing worked in his favor. Rohit, in the first three five-day fixtures, has notched up 31 runs in five innings at an average of 6.20 and a strike rate of 28.18 with the best score of ten. That’s nearly 20% of what his opposite number, the captain of Pat Cummins, has scored (149 in seven innings).
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This has led Surinder Khanna, the former Indian wicket-keeper batter, to criticize both of these players and question their contribution to the national side in the last 45 innings.
“What are Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli doing? Remove attention from Rishabh Pant. He used to play like this only from day one. He will continue to make such mistakes. Tell me about Kohli and Rohit, what have they doing since the last 40-45 innings? They should automatically sit outside if selectors are not doing it then they should do it themselves.” The former wicket-keeper batter for India, who played ten One-day internationals, expressed during an interaction with ANI.
“You and I can’t throw them out. The kind of form they are in then even if you will bowl, they will get out. I am saying this by experience. The shot, which is their scoring one, why should not they play? David Gower and Gundappa Vishwanath scored so many runs by playing cut shots.” The Delhi-born highlighted.
The same struggle story has been continuing with Virat Kohli, who celebrated his 30th red-ball century for India during the second innings of the Perth Test but hasn’t looked in great shape at all since then. The ongoing problem against the balls outside the off-stump has been troubling him a lot.
The former captain of India has smashed 167 runs in seven innings so far at an average of 27.83, while 67 runs have come in six innings out of it at 11.11.
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“Our batters Kohli and Rohit are out of form, and selectors need to take a call. If they are not announcing, then selectors need to announce something. Going into the next test, play youngsters, and we will win, like under Bumrah, we won the first Test.” Khanna urged the selectors of India.
“We outclassed Australia. Since Rohit came back, we have been struggling. I may sound harsh, but you have to make harsh decisions if you want to win. We watch, we cry, we have the right to say this.” The veteran concluded.