India vs Australia: Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma© AFP
With India failing to prevent Australia from winning the Melbourne Test, former India cricketer Surinder Khanna took a dig at Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma over their poor form in recent matches in the longest format of the game. “What are Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli doing? Remove attention from Rishabh Pant. He used to play like this only from day one. He will continue to make such mistakes. Tell me about Kohli and Rohit, what have they doing since the last 40-45 innings? They should automatically sit outside if selectors are not doing it then they should do it themselves. You and I can’t throw them out. The kind of form they are in then even if you will bowl, they will get out. I am saying this by experience. The shot which is their scoring one, why should not they play? David Gower and Gundappa Vishwanath scored so many runs by playing cut shots,” Surinder Khanna told ANI.
Rohit has been struggling for form, and did all the hard work during the fifth day but eventually returned to the dressing room with nothing to show for it. Instead of going all guns blazing, Rohit adopted a defensive stance and mustered up nine runs after facing 40 deliveries. After effectively dealing with the pace threat, he decided to take on his counterpart Pat Cummins. His attempt to flick the ball away resulted in a thick outside edge, which carried to Mitchell Marsh at gully. With his head and shoulders slumped, Rohit returned to the dugout and left the floodgates open.
After Rohit’s dismissal, everything fell apart for the Indian team. KL Rahul joined the Indian skipper in the same over for a five-ball duck. Virat Kohli lost his discipline and got lured into playing a drive on the ball by left-armer Mitchell Starc on the final ball before lunch. Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant offered stability and assurance by leading the charge against the Aust
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