 "Three out of Team India's four senior-most players had a poor series against New Zealand. Image: PTI")
The Indian senior players are under the pump after a shambolic 3-0 Test series loss to New Zealand at home. With most of the senior players struggling for form, India suffered their first 3-0 Test series loss at home , and first Test series defeat at home since 2012. Naturally, the senior players – Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, and Ravichandran Ashwin – are in the firing line.
Former India pacer Karsan Ghavri has said that Rohit and Kohli should retire if they do not perform in Australia. A report in the news agency PTI also states something similar. As per a BCCI source who spoke to PTI, at least one to two seniors can be shown the door if they fail to win the five-match Test series in Australia or fail to qualify for the 2025 World Test Championship (WTC) final.
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The reactions are understandable given how bad some of the seniors were during the New Zealand series.
Rohit Sharma
The India captain scored a total of 91 runs in six innings at an average of 15.17. He was the 13th in the list of highest run-getters during the series.
The 37-year-old has been witnessing quite a decline in his Test career, having scored 588 runs in 11 Tests in 2024 at an average of 29.40. In 21 innings, he has two hundreds and two fifties to his name.
Virat Kohli
12th on the run-getters list was Kohli with just 93 runs in three matches (six innings) at an average of 15.50. He did not score a single fifty. In fact, Kohli didn’t get a single 50+ score in the two Tests against Bangladesh as well. In 2024, Kohli has scored a mere 250 runs in six matches at an average of 22.72. In 12 innings he has scored just one fifty and has struggled the most among the senior lot in Tests in 2024.
Impact Shorts
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Ravichandran Ashwin
The 38-year-old Ravichandran Ashwin has taken 46 wickets in 10 Tests in 2024 at an average of 26.69. In 2023, he took 41 wickets in just seven Test matches and averaged 17.02 runs per wicket. In the New Zealand series, he took just nine wickets across six innings and had an average of 41.22. The all-rounder scored 51 runs across six innings against New Zealand.
Ravindra Jadeja
Jadeja was the only senior cricketer who lived up to his reputation, taking 16 wickets at 21.56 in three matches. 10 out of his 16 wickets, however, came in the final Test at Mumbai with only six coming in the first two matches.
He also didn’t have a great time with bat, scoring 105 runs in six innings.
Overall in 2024, Jadeja has taken 44 wickets from 10 matches at an average of 21.81, while he took 33 wickets in seven matches at 19.39 in 2023.