NEW DELHI: The inglorious end of India’s proud home record has left the cricket-mad nation grappling with the reality it has long been dreading — that ageing stalwarts Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma might be approaching the end of the road.

Through three World Cup titles, two World Test Cham­pionship (WTC) finals, and a 12-year Test series winning streak on home soil, Kohli and Sharma, often together, have been integral to every major Indian success of the last 17 years.

Both quit T20 internationals after winning the World Cup in West Indies earlier this year and their diminishing returns in Test cricket is a huge concern ahead of India’s trip to Australia for a bumper five-test series.

India will be hoping to avert a rare whitewash in the third Test against New Zealand starting on Friday with fans hoping skipper Sharma and batting mainstay Kohli will produce some runs before they fly off to Australia.

Opener Sharma, at his peak a free-scoring and elegant batter who helped India to their first two series triumphs in Australia in 2018-19 and 2020-21, has six single-digit returns and just one fifty from his last eight Test innings.

Kohli, widely considered one of the batting greats of the modern game, has managed just two centuries in the last five years and only two fifties in his last 12 innings in the longest format.

The right-hander’s average has dropped to 48.31 and his struggles against left-arm spin — he fell to New Zealand’s Mitchell Santner in both innings of the second Test — has been conspicuous.

“Virat Kohli’s test record in the last two-three years has not been great against spin,” his former India team-mate Dinesh Karthik told www.cricbuzz.com.

Kohli looked crestfallen after being bowled by a juicy full toss from Santner in the first innings in Pune, as if recalling how, in his prime, he would have sent the delivery racing to the boundary.

“It’s obviously a recurring pattern where (left-arm) spinners have troubled him, and I think he will go and figure out what he needs to do to come out stronger,” Karthik said. “He is a man who is searching for answers.”

It is not just Sharma and Kohli who have come up short, however, as India’s usually strong and deep batting has been a major letdown in the two Tests against New Zealand.

Skittled for a dismal 46 in Ben­galuru and a paltry 146 in Pune, their failure to put decent scores on the board in first innings meant a comeback in either test was a tall order. India have a slender lead over Australia in the WTC standings and another def­eat in Mumbai would mean they would need to win four of the five Test matches to reach their third consecutive final.

The next two months might also determine whether Kohli, who turns 36 next week, and Sha­rma, who is a year older, can ext­end their Test careers.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2024