Current form aside, Kohli and Rohit deserve judgement only after Australia tour ends

Virat Kohli stayed on his haunches, his face a disbelieving mix of shock and denial.

Just eight minutes previously, he had walked out to a hero’s welcome at Pune’s MCA International Stadium, businesslike as he strode characteristically purposefully towards the batting crease, secure in the knowledge that he had put in the hard yards at practice, that the rewards for his untiring efforts weren’t far away.

There wasn’t just steel to him, there was also a marked slight technical adjustment. He had been dismissed leg before numerous times in the last few outings by spinners and he had just seen Shubman Gill perish the same way to Mitchell Santner, paying the penalty for going with pad ahead of bat. So, he opened up his body, slipping into an almost two-eyed stance. This meant the left foot was out of harm’s way, and the chances of being out leg before were vastly reduced.

The full that sneaked through

He middled the first few balls; there was surety in defence and we looked at each other and nodded. Today, was the universal belief. Today, he would make it count.

Then came the Santner full toss, delivered a little slowly, tossed up a little bit. Normally, Kohli would have looked at it, looked at Santner, and put it away to any part of the ground. But these aren’t normal times for Kohli, are they? So he went down on his knee, attempting a slog-sweep which, to his credit, he plays extremely well. As the bat came down towards the ball, it hit the pitch. Maybe just kissed it, but that was enough. It created a huge gap through which the ball snaked through to hit the middle pole. Kohli was mortified, and embarrassed. And out. Very, very out, for just one.

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The deafening sound of silence took over. The same crowd which was cheering and chanting and roaring as one collectively lost its voice; it couldn’t even summon a gasp. Kohli sat there, stunned. Santner looked sheepish but delighted. He might have feared the worst when the ball left his hand. Instead, he had been gifted with the scalp of one of the most premier batters of his generation who is now going through a patch that is gradually starting to assume the proportions of a millstone.

This calendar year hasn’t been kind on Kohli. Yes, he had a terrific run with Royal Challengers Bengaluru and he was the Player of the Final at the T20 World Cup, but otherwise, it has been a frustrating, unfulfilling year runs-wise. He has looked the part more than once, but he hasn’t kicked on. That’s not the Kohli the world has come to know and admire for so long. Maybe one’s imagining things, but there seems to be a slight dimming of the fire, a slight lessening of the passion that made Kohli what he is. Or what he was, his growing band of critics might say.

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Kohli and his successor as India’s all-format captain, Rohit Sharma, have almost become a package deal now when it comes to being punching bags. Rohit’s recent form – read the last four Tests – has been less than impressive; he has just one half-century and six single-digit scores from eight innings, which normally would have slid by unnoticed but when he has overseen India’s first home series loss in 12 years and 19 attempts, the knives will be out, won’t they? Rohit set up India’s extraordinary victory in Kanpur against Bangladesh and carried on in like attacking vein in the second innings in Bengaluru when India trailed the Kiwis by 356 runs, but his troubles against the new ball – he has fallen to the pacers early in the piece four times in these eight innings – can’t be ignored.

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Judgement must be reserved

Are Kohli and Rohit closer to the end of their international careers than the beginning? Without a shadow of a doubt. Rohit made his India debut in June 2007 in an ODI against South Africa in Ireland, Kohli represented the country for the first time 14 months later, also in an ODI, in Sri Lanka. Between them, they have 33 years of international experience. So yes, they are closer to the end than the start.

But are they close to the end of their careers? Judgement must be reserved, at least till the end of the five-Test tour of Australia starting next month. Kohli has endured rough patches in the past and come out on the other side of them, smelling of roses. Rohit’s sample size is too small – too fresh, yes, but also too small – to make a sweeping assessment. After all, it was only at the start of this year that he made two hundreds in three Tests against England, and it was only in June that he put eternal bugbears Australia out of the T20 World Cup in the league phase and followed it up with a match-winning half-century against England in the semifinal.

In Rohit’s case more than Kohli’s, the temptation to embrace patience is huge. Such is the lot of the opener that he can get out early, when the pitch and the bowlers are at their freshest. But while Kohli hasn’t been able to unleash the big one, he hasn’t looked entirely out of sorts. It might seem like clutching at straws, using this argument for someone who has brought the best attacks in the world to their knees time after time, especially in the period between 2014 and 2019. But it is precisely that volume of work that demands that he get greater leeway to work himself back among the runs.

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The next few months will be crucial for Rohit and Kohli and, by extension, for India. In Australia, where Kohli has an exceptional record and where he summons the verve and the drive and the energy for battle almost at the flick of a switch, both will be tested by the bowling and the crowd, by the skills of the bowlers and the taunts of the fielders. Both have been around long enough to put that out of their minds. India’s fans will be hoping they can maybe use all of that to galvanise themselves, because recent form notwithstanding, this duo still has plenty to offer. Plenty.