With India set to play a five-match Test series in Australia, star batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli‘s form remains a huge topic of discussion. Rohit and Kohli have come under the scanner after the embarrassing 0-3 whitewash to New Zealand. Rohit scored only 91 runs in 6 innings, while Kohli just bettered him with 93 as India were whitewashed at home by the Kiwis last week. Following their poor show against New Zealand, calls have been made to drop the duo from the Test squad. However, former Australia captain Michael Clarke feels Rohit and Kohli’s recent poor form is mainly due to mental fatigue, something which was evident in their shot selection.
“Take nothing away from New Zealand but It tells me India are so fatigued. Some of their shot selection, the use of bowlers and even Rohit to come out and say he wasn’t at his best – just Think it was mental fatigue. They’ve played so much cricket without a break, but it’ll be a little kick up the backside for them,” Clarke said on ESPN’s Around the Wicket Podcast.
Clarke backed Rohit and Kohli to regain their forms if they arrived in Australia after freshening up.
“They know they’ve played well out here in Australia and they’ll still come here with plenty of talent and that self-belief, but hopefully fresh. That’s the key for the Indian players. Virat Kohli – you can’t be that good for such a long period of time and just turn the tap off. So once he freshens up, and Rohit Sharma the same, you’ll see the best of them,” he added.
Meanwhile, India captain Rohit is likely to miss the first Test against Australia, scheduled to be played in Perth from November 22.
India’s squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Mohd. Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.
Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed
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