IND vs AUS: Tough challenge awaits Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli in Australia

When Virat Kohli was scoring that second-innings century in Perth about 11 months ago, little did he know that it would be his last in Tests. A lot has happened since then — he has retired from red-ball cricket — and is now in a battle to extend his ODI career, starting with the first ODI against Australia on Sunday at the same Optus Stadium.Rohit Sharma didn’t play that Test match but his career, too, has gone on a similar trajectory, culminating in his removal as ODI captain before the Australia series. The Indian cricket world is deeply divided over whether these two modern-day greats should still be part of the ODI team, forcing young guns like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma and Abhishek Sharma to wait in the wings.

Former India coach Ravi Shastri said in a podcast recently that both Rohit and Virat would probably “see how it goes” in the Australia series and decide whether they still have it in them to carry on. WV Raman, who coached a young Virat when he was the U-19 India captain, feels it should be completely left to two legends on when to take a call. “Did anybody ask them when they started playing cricket, why you are doing so? And let’s not forget, they are performing in ODIs, so you can’t just tell them to go,” Raman, a former India player, told TOI. But then, Rohit is 38 and Virat 36. The first question that comes to mind is whether the conditions in Australia will be too much of a challenge for them.

It is, after all, not easy to come back from a long break and start scoring runs with hardly any match-practice under your belt — the opposition has Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood in the bowling attack. But then, Rohit remains the only visiting batter to score four centuries against Australia in their own den, the highest being a 171 at WACA in Perth back in 2016. Virat, on the other hand, has three against the Aussies Down Under, a record that he shares with Sir Vivian Richards. Raman feels the conditions won’t be that big a problem in ODIs for either of the two, even though they are coming from a break. “If you look at white-ball pitches across the world, they are normally batting friendly with not much sideways movement. That leaves you with bounce, something that both Virat and Rohit feed off. I’d say they are better off playing in Australia than on a slow turner back home, where the ball keeps low.

Here, they can ride the bounce and score quickly,” Raman said. Rohit and Virat, though, are the only two players in the Indian lineup who haven’t played any competitive cricket since the IPL. But from the visuals of the two practising at the Optus nets, one gets the impression they are not short on training. Kohli looks crisp in his shot-making and physically fit as ever, putting in the hard yards in England, with RCB coach Dinesh Karthik saying that the man with 51 ODI tons is motivated to play the 2027 World Cup in South Africa. Rohit, on the other hand, has lost significant weight and is looking at his leanest in a very long time. Scenes of his practice sessions at the BKC Complex in Mumbai have also gone viral. India’s former assistant coach Abhishek Nayar, who is also the right-hander’s friend, told Star Sports how Rohit wanted to change the perception around him in the 12 weeks before the Australia series. “He looked at growth and not maintaining — growth with regards to physical structure and movements.

These 12 weeks were about making a difference, to be healthier, faster and fitter,” Nayar said in the interview. That, in a nutshell, explains the desperation of the ODI legend to be part of the Indian set-up and take a crack at the title that he has not won — the 50-over World Cup. It’s still one-and-a-half years to go, but Rohit believes he can defy age, deal with the humiliation of the captaincy being taken away from him despite winning the Champions Trophy and fight on. “Both Rohit and Virat have been pretty demanding captains. They know what the team wants from them and they are immensely responsible cricketers. Don’t forget there is a ready-made replacement (in Jaiswal) for both of them, who is there in the squad itself. So they know how strong the competition is going to be,” Raman said. Given where they are in their lives right now, the challenge for ‘Ro-Ko’ will probably be the sternest that they have faced in their illustrious careers. Indications are that reputations won’t matter for the management if the runs don’t come, but that’s the nature of the beast. And no one knows it better than two of the best in the business.