Legends Virat Kohli And Rohit Sharma Need To Step Aside To Transition India’s Test Team

At least they gave it a go. But with India facing a mighty tough challenge for survival in a dramatic fourth Test finale against Australia’s relentless attack on a tricky Melbourne surface, their aging legends Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma just couldn’t summon the brilliance of old when it mattered the most.

They both failed, once again, and it was left to India’s younger batters to try to thwart Australia with 23-year-old Yashasvi Jaiswal doing his best with a gutsy 84 off 208 deliveries, but it was in vain.

India needed their veteran stars to step up on the fifth day with the series locked at 1-1 apiece and their World Tour Championship final hopes effectively on the line.

With 74,000 in attendance at the iconic MCG, in a Test match that has gripped the country like it rarely has in recent times as it broke attendance and broadcast records, the stage was set for the 37-year-old Rohit who in this Test had returned back to his favored opener’s spot in place of in-form KL Rahul.

Rohit, India’s captain, has had a rotten year with the bat, but was disciplined early against the seaming new ball. He looked focused and steeled for a big innings having looked incredibly rusty when he returned to the side after missing India’s first Test victory in Perth due to the birth of his second child.

But Rohit’s first attacking shot resulted in a miscue and he was soon trudging off the vast expanses of the MCG. He has become a liability and holding out talented youngsters Shuman Gill, Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel who all featured earlier in the series. Nitish Kumar Reddy, who made a brilliant maiden Test century in the first innings at No.8, should be batting in the top six.

There are other precocious players making their way through India’s never-ending production line but they are being held back due to Rohit’s stature. India won the series-opener with Padikkal and Jurel holding important positions in the line-up and while they didn’t fire they did inject this team with youthful enthusiasm.

Rohit’s struggles are seemingly rattling this usually composed leader. Jaiswal dropped a trio of catches, which did prove costly for India, on day four with a visibly irate Rohit gesticulating wildly as his emotions bubbled over.

The pressure of holding India’s top job, in all three formats, is like no other in all of sports given cricket is something close to a religion in a country with more than a billion people.

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Rohit has been a great leader, lifting India to a drought-breaking T20 World Cup title this year, but the red flags are evident.

And the spotlight is getting particularly bright for Rohit with one Australian tabloid, seemingly striving to shift away from resembling a serious newspaper in an apparent attempt to rebrand as a satirical publication, particularly scathing with its mockery.

There are reports emerging out of India that Rohit is set to retire and the SCG Test would make a fitting finale. Kohli is likely to play on but his form has been a concern for years now. He did rewind the old magic with a century in Perth, but that appears an outlier.

Kohli, so technically assured during his astounding career, has developed a major weakness outside off-stump and Australia’s unrelenting seamers are exploiting this. He keeps getting caught behind in the same hapless dismissal every time. Kohli seems clueless to counter and while it’s dangerous to write off cricket’s biggest star, the 36-year-old seems to be running on empty.

For all his accolades and staggering wealth, Kohli is undeniably a team player. He plays with unwavering passion to remain the team’s talisman and sets the tone in the field with his enthusiasm. Kohli goes to the limit, even risking punishment, in a bid to fire up his team as he controversially did in the first morning of the match.

Perhaps Kohli will ponder doing right by India and step aside for a younger teammate to take the baton. It will be his call. The selectors almost surely won’t be brave enough to tap him on the shoulder. But Kohli looked unusually defeated as he cut a desolate figure walking off the famous MCG turf just before lunch on day five.

Maybe he knows.