Former India cricketers Irfan Pathan and Sunil Gavaskar fumed at the superstar culture in Indian cricket and the lack of commitment to playing in domestic cricket tournaments amid the struggles in international cricket. Their comments were completely directed towards India’s two senior batters, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who had a disastrous tour of Australia. And the comments, which went viral on social media, were paid heed to by BCCI officials as well, as they reportedly are hell-bent on solving the dilemma.

Kohli, barring that century in the series opener in Perth, emerged as one of the biggest letdowns. He finished with just 190 runs at 23.75 across eight innings. Amid the poor returns with the bat, experts’ biggest concern was the re-emergence of his vulnerability against the deliveries outside the off stump. He was dismissed seven out of eight times against the variety, with Scott Boland being the key wrecker-in-chief, having picked up Kohli’s wicket four times in three matches.

Rohit, on the other hand, finished with only 31 runs in five innings, recording the worst-ever average by a touring skipper in Australia, before he “opted out” of the fifth Test.

The poor stretch of run from the two stalwarts in Indian cricket did spark discussions on their future in Test cricket and whether the selectors would at all consider them when the fresh World Test Championship cycle begins in late June. However, a report in Dainik Jagran indicated that Kohli and Rohit are unlikely to retire on their own, leaving the difficult task up to the Ajit Agarkar-led led selection committee.

“The officials of the team are also unhappy with the defeat. The team going through a difficult phase of change will now have to do a lot of introspection after returning home. When asked about this, the top BCCI official said I was listening to Gavaskar and Irfan after the match. When asked about Virat and Rohit, he said there are no indications that these two will retire from Tests on their own. BCCI cannot even ask them to retire, but something will have to be done for the team’s betterment. Certainly, when the time comes, the selectors will take the right decision,” read the report.

Soon-to-be BCCI office bearers address Kohli-Rohit issue

The report further added that Devajit Saikia, who is set to replace Jay Shah as the new BCCI secretary, and Prabhtej Bhatia, who applied for the post of treasurer on Saturday at the Wankhede, had a discussion on Kohli’s recent troubles against the deliveries outside the off stump.

“One official said that he has been out like this in the last six innings, while the other corrected him and said that this may have happened eight times,” read the report.