Former Australian skipper Ian Chappell raised some questions about the current form of Indian players Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma ahead of the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy. He believes that the Australian conditions could expose their recent struggles more.
The five match series will start from November 22 in Perth is very important for India’s World Test Championship, team need to win at least four matches without a single defeat to secure their place in the finals.
The Men in Blue were whitewashed by New Zealand at their home. Both Virat and Rohit struggled with their form, dropping their averages below 16. Chappell pointed on how the Australian conditions will affect their form more.
“The only thing I’d say against that is they’re coming to Australia where the pitches are pretty good, but there’ll be the extra bounce and if they have gone over the top then the extra bounce will find them out.”
Meanwhile, Chappell was impressed by India’s young talent Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal. He even said that the pressure of age might be affecting Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s performance.
“India have got some batting problems. I think Jaiswal is a very good-looking young player, a left-hand opener, I think Gill can really play. But then you’ve got Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who are both aging, and you get to that point where people start talking about it and maybe it starts to creep into your head a little bit (where you think), ‘Am I getting to that age where it starts to go downhill?’, and they’re both at that age.”
Talking about Kohli’s form in Australia, historically he has enjoyed playing in the Australian pitches, has an impressive average of over 54. While Rohit has struggled playing in Australia with an average of under 32.