India coach Gautam Gambhir on Monday backed "incredibly tough men" Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to prove their critics wrong and find form in Australia.
India must start planning for Rohit Sharma's successor if the team do not play well in their five-Test series in Australia as the captain could well retire from the longest format, former skipper Krishnamachari Srikkanth has said.
With Australia looming large, the form of 37-year-old Rohit and superstar batsman Kohli, 35, is of particular concern to Indian cricket fans.
After India's batting frailties were brutally exposed in a 3-0 home series defeat by New Zealand, captain Rohit Sharma said it was important that his players get in the right frame of mind for what promises to be a challenging tour of Australia.
After stunning victories in Bengaluru and Pune, the Black Caps won the third Test in Mumbai by 25 runs to become the first team to whitewash India at home in a series featuring three or more matches.
Batsmen have forgotten how to defend in Test cricket because of the T20 game, India coach Gautam Gambhir said Thursday ahead of the third and final match against New Zealand.
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.
After a surprising series defeat by New Zealand, India's skipper Rohit Sharma said undue expectation was being put on frontline spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, as he called for more collective bowling efforts to win Test matches.
Seamer Mohammed Shami will not play in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy test series against Australia while spinner Kuldeep Yadav has been sidelined with a groin injury as the country's cricket board (BCCI) announced an 18-member squad on Friday.
Rohit Sharma's India clinched the Test series against Australia 2-1 after the fourth match ended in a draw at the world's biggest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad on Monday.
Rohit Sharma on Wednesday angrily dismissed suggestions his India side had become overconfident, calling the criticism from former head coach Ravi Shastri "absolutely rubbish".
It reflects a wider, and not wholly unpopular, trend globally as five-day stalemates have given way to three days of frenetic action with a guaranteed outcome.
India, who lead the four-Test series 2-1, were bundled out for 109 and 169 on a rank turner at Indore's Holkar Cricket Stadium where 30 wickets fell in the first two days of the low-scoring contest
The hosts took a commanding first-innings lead of 223 in Nagpur and then bowled out Australia for 91 in the second session to take a 1-0 lead in the four-match series.
India were 321-7 at stumps with all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja proving his worth for the second straight day of his international return with an unbeaten 66.
Jadeja returned figures of 5-47 and fellow spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took three wickets to bowl out Australia for 177 in the final session on a turning Nagpur pitch.
India captain Rohit Sharma said he withdrew a 'Mankad' run-out appeal against Dasun Shanaka in Tuesday's one-day international as that was not how they envisioned dismissing the Sri Lankan skipper, who scored a century in a game his team could not win.
Bangladesh won the toss and opted to bowl first in the first ODI of the three-match series against India in Mirpur on Sunday.
India skipper Rohit Sharma said on Saturday his side's month-long tour of Bangladesh will be "no cakewalk", with several veterans returning to bolster the tourists' ranks after a lacklustre run abroad.