The legendary Ian Chappell has addressed the elephant in Team India's room, calling Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma 'ageing' players in the build-up to the five-Test series against Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India haven't had the best preparations leading up to their tour Down Under, facing a loss at the hands of New Zealand, who now threaten to build on their 2-0 lead with a 3-0 whitewash. Such a result is never ideal heading into a high-profile series, let alone against Australia in their den, and with runs becoming hard to come by for the two biggest batting superstars of Indian cricket, the Indian team finds itself in a bit of a rocky period.

Weighing in on Kohli and Rohit's lack of form and runs, Chappell believes there is a chance that the two are getting bogged down by all the outside noise that's revolving around their future. There is a section of fans who believe that Rohit and Kohli are past their prime, while another batch is confident about their comeback. With so much happening in and around Indian cricket at the moment, Chappell reckons the only way Kohli and Rohit can bat themselves out of the rut is by batting on better, quicker pitches in Australia.

"India have got some batting problems. Yashasvi Jaiswal is a very good-looking young player; left hand opener. I think Shubman Gill can really play, but then you've got Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who are both ageing. And you get to that point where people start talking about it and maybe it starts to creep in the head a little bit 'Are we getting to that age where it all starts to go downhill?' They are both at that age," Chappel said during a discussion on World Wide Sports.

"The only thing I would say against that is they are coming to Australia, where the pitches will be pretty good, but there'll be the extra bounce and if they have gone over the top, that extra bounce will find them out."

Mark Taylor has his say

Chappell's thoughts were echoed by another former Aussie captain, Mark Taylor, who highlighted the overdependence on other players every time neither Kohli nor Rohit scored runs. In the last year and a half, Kohli and Rohit have failed more than they have succeeded, which has only made the job tougher for the other players in the XI. India have rotated players around in their middle order, with Sarfaraz Khan and KL Rahul getting on and off opportunities, often succeeding. But Taylor believes that as long as Rohit and Kohli don't bring out their hungry, scary self, India will continue to struggle.

"It's interesting what India have done. Jaiswal and Gill, to me, both look like excellent players. They've had this injection of youth, which they had to do. You've got to rotate your batting order – that's one of the problems Australia is having at the moment – to try to find those younger players. But they've moved on from Pujara and Rahane, and they've left Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, their two best players," said Taylor.

"But also, they've had a bit of rocky period. They are not making the runs you expect a senior player to make. And that has put pressure on their young guys and the lower order. Rishabh Pant, Jadeja, Ashwin… they can all make runs, but you also need someone to make the bulkier runs from your best players. And over the last 12-18 months, that hasn't been the case for India."

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