Australian tours have a habit of making or breaking Test careers. VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid destroyed Australia’s world-record winning streak at Kolkata in 2001, overcoming one of the greatest teams and its champion bowlers Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. By 2012, Australia’s home grounds ended Laxman and Dravid, four Tests across the country returning a pair of half-centuries and bringing two fine careers to a deflating close against the more modest threat of Ben Hilfenhaus and Nathan Lyon.
Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were two more declining champions who creaked through that tour and were managed out of the side by the following year. The only player who fell into the make rather than break category was a young Virat Kohli, who scored his first century in Adelaide of a tally that he has now taken on to 30. Now, as the wheel turns, he and captain Rohit Sharma form another pair of champions whose decline is being laid clear by the harsh light of the southern sun.
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Kohli is the one who looks like he is fighting it: still physically fit to the point of twanging like a taut string, still simmering on the field with the intensity that sees him do unnecessary things like shirtfront Sam Konstas in Melbourne, still looking organised with his movements at the crease and glaring at the ball as if trying to read its mind. Everything up until the point when his concentration flickers like a fuse has popped, and he gets out playing the same push outside off-stump.
The disconnect between approach and result appears to be perplexing Kohli as much as anybody. But there are still times when it comes together for a couple of hours or a couple of sessions, even long enough in Perth for him to reach a second-innings century after Australia’s bowlers had already had their stuffing knocked out. Especially with five Tests in England coming in six months, there is reason for India to hang on to the player who has best figured out how to bat there, to pass on the method even if he’s no longer perfect at carrying it out.
Rohit is a different story. He has never had Kohli’s physique, so the paunchiness that is mocked by his critics has never been the difference in his cricket. But it is mental fitness rather than physical that has seemed to dog Rohit of late. He has been lethargic tactically and personally, slouching around the field looking downcast. Mistakes from teammates first saw him pinching his brow like a harried bookkeeper, which developed into verbal scoldings on the field.
Basically, Rohit has looked like he doesn’t want to be there. And tactically, there are three reasons why India would have been better off if he wasn’t. Captaincy: the team was bubbling and buoyant after Jasprit Bumrah led them to victory in Perth, only to lose that after Rohit resumed duties. Runs: Rohit can’t buy one, but configurations since his return have pushed out the younger and more dynamic Shubman Gill, Devdutt Padikkal, and Dhruv Jurel. And disruption: KL Rahul started the tour strongly as an opener, but was shifted to ill-effect in Melbourne after Rohit wanted to come up from No 6.
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Put it all together, and the argument for him stepping down before the Sydney Test is strong. He skipped the usual pre-match press conference in favour of coach Gautam Gambhir, who did not confirm that Rohit would play, but these sort of obfuscations aren’t unusual. Rohit has taken down Australian teams in the past, but this series has faced fewer balls in three Tests than Australia’s No 11 Scott Boland has in two. India must win this next match to remain a chance of making the World Test Championship final. The best possible XI must be picked.
Sometimes, regeneration happens organically. After David Warner retired a year ago, the Australian team’s perfect world would have involved the other 10 players going through to the upcoming Ashes in a year’s time. Instead, this summer they will have blooded Nathan McSweeney, Konstas, and, on Friday, Beau Webster. A few players on the next rank are at least getting a taste. In other teams, at other times, regeneration involves hard calls being made. Sydney will be India’s first test of that.
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