In all likelihood, India’s ongoing tour could be the last one Down Under for stalwarts like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. But on pace-friendly Australian soil, which makes run-scoring a tough job, the focus is always on the batters and fast bowlers. And that puts the spotlight on Kohli and Rohit, who haven’t been at the top of their game consistently of late.
Kohli roared in Perth with a Test century after a long barren spell, but Rohit’s poor run extended with scores of 3 and 6 in the two innings at Adelaide, after he missed the first Test following the birth of his child.
IND vs AUS: India batting has been a major cause of worry
It has also led to fans and former players questioning the legendary duo’s extended run based on reputation despite not delivering, and former Australia captain Greg Chappell believes a cricket board needs the right set of selectors to have a tough word with players of the stature of Rohit and Kohli.
“You know yourself whether you’re at your peak or not. But they (big players) obviously love playing the game; they want to play it as long as they can, and they have every reason, every right to want to go as long as they can,” said Chappell, who also had an infamous stint as India coach during Sourav Ganguly’s captaincy days.
With the players earning a lot of money while in the team, Chappell believes they want to keep going and that’s when a selector’s role becomes more important.
“That’s why you need good, robust selection policies and selection panels to make those tough decisions,” he continued. “It’s not up to the players necessarily to make those decisions. They might want to make that decision, but it’s a well-paid job. Who’s going to walk away from it? Someone else has to make that decision. That’s why you need robust selection panels and policies.”
IND vs AUS: Rohit Sharma has had a terrible time with the bat in whites
In his 10 innings across five Tests at home against Bangladesh and New Zealand before the tour of Australia, Rohit could score only 133 runs at an average of 13.10. In the same two series, Kohli too fared poorly and aggregated 192 runs at an average of 21.33.
Chappell said talking about poor performance with big players is a tough proposition.
“It’s very tough. You’ve got to pick the right people to be selectors, the ones that are prepared to have those tough conversations…depends on the relationships between the various people in the room. But we all go through it, everyone that plays at that level. You’ll have your ups and downs as a player. With good players, you prefer to give them a game too many than a game too few. So it’s always tough to get that balance right,” the Australia legend concluded.