Shastri and Ponting weigh in on struggling Kohli, Rohit

Ricky Ponting and Ravi Shastri have shared their thoughts on where Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are at in their Test careers following a further downturn in form for the superstar pair in India’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy loss to Australia.

Once the linchpin of India’s batting, Kohli suffered a torrid time Down Under ending with just 190 runs at an average under 24, despite scoring an unbeaten century in the first Test in Perth.

Looking for potential solutions for the 36-year-old, cricketing greats Ricky Ponting and Ravi Shastri agreed he had much to give, despite struggles against spin at home and technical issues outside off-stump in Australia.

Speaking to host Sanjana Ganesan on The ICC Review, Ponting compared Kohli’s struggles to his own towards the end of his career, where the former Australian captain averaged 39.48 in his last five years as a Test batter, down from a career average of 51.85.

“The challenge is, and I can see it with Virat now, you can see how much he wants it,” Ponting told The ICC Review.

“He's trying so hard that that actually makes batting harder. The harder you try sometimes with batting, the less success you're to have.

“I started thinking more about not getting out rather than scoring runs. And that might sound strange, but that's what it was. I was trying to be so perfect, set the right example, play exactly the way my team needed me all the time.”

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Having gone through a similar experience, Ponting backed the natural style of play to come good at this stage of the career.

“But when I was playing my best, I didn't think about any of that. I just walked out and thought about scoring runs,”he said.

“If I got a half volley, I drove it. If I got a short ball, I pulled it. And I can just see a little bit of that with Virat now, where even the way that he's getting out, you can see he doesn't want to be playing at those balls.

“He's trying not to do it, but there's some mental block there that's making him feel for that one outside the off-stump.”

However, Ponting said Kohli will be of great use in the Indian dressing room as a senior voice who could provide guidance and support to younger players.

“I did play for maybe two years longer than I should have. But that wasn't anything to do with me,” Ponting revealed.

“I continued to play on to try and help the younger group of players coming through, sort of integrate into international cricket and almost be like a coach and a senior figure around the team to help them through because Mike Hussey was retiring as well.

“And [I thought] we're going to be left with not a lot of experienced guys, but guys like Smith, Warner, Lyon had all these young guys coming in at once.”

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Ponting’s points were met with full support by co-panelist Shastri, who gave the examples of Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara to strengthen the argument.

“This now takes my mind back to [Sachin] Tendulkar, [and] to Brian Lara. When you evaluate their careers and see where Virat is, I think Virat still has it in him for the next couple of years to do precisely what Ricky said,” Shastri told The ICC Review.

“To get the youngsters coming through the ranks there. Help them out. Share knowledge. Be part of the dressing room. Contribute to the team.

“And if your form is still good and you're enjoying it, stay there. Otherwise, it will be time to move on and your mind will tell you to do that.”

Shastri looked at Tendulkar as a player, who helped inexperienced players in the final years of his career.

“The same thing happened with Sachin. I think he had to play a similar role to Ricky. If you look at his last couple of years also, he himself would say he was not at his best. But he was playing well enough and wanted to contribute,” said Shastri.

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For him, West Indies great Lara, who finished the game with 11,953 runs at an average of 52.88, was the player who stuck to his natural style till the very end.

“The only guy I thought who just played the game where he saw the ball and smacked it was Brian [Lara],” he said.

“I don't think he ever thought of not getting out or surviving. He thought of smashing it. And that's why probably scored that quickly and enjoyed himself. And when he had a run where he didn't score, he just left the game.”

Shastri agreed Kohli could still give back to Indian cricket as a player and also a senior presence in the dressing room, by guiding the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, and Nitish Reddy.

“So I think the contributing factor to this team is transition and the youngsters coming through the ranks. If you look at Jaiswal, he's 23. You look at Shubham Gill is 22, 23 [25 years]. Nitish Reddy is 21.

“There are a lot of players. Rishabh Pant, he is still very young. He is 25 or 26. [27 years].”

“So there are a lot of guys there who can benefit from the experience of a player of Virat Kohli's calibre.”

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Shastri also stated for both Kohli and Sharma, the India Test captain who averaged 6.2 in the series, that the duo should take any opportunity to jump into red-ball domestic cricket when possible.

“If there's a gap for them, I think they should go back and play some domestic cricket and see how it is,” he said.

“Because when you play Test match cricket for that length of time, it's important to play domestic cricket for two reasons: You're abreast with the current generation (and) you can contribute to that younger generation with your experience.

“And more importantly you get to play spin more than you will ever play. So if you see India as recorded, India on turning tracks is not the greatest. If you have quality spinners in the opposition, they can trouble you. And they have troubled India.”

Apart from this practical advice, Shastri left the ball in Rohit and Kohli’s court, stating that their future in the longest format of the game will depend on their hunger to keep playing Tests.

“They might have been lucky to get over a couple of series, but you saw how New Zealand exposed them before coming to Australia. So I would leave it on that,” Shastri stated.

“And plus, it's the hunger and desire. When you're in your 30s, one is 36, the other is 38. They would know how hungry they are.”

WATCH: CC Hall of Famer Ricky Ponting and former India Head Coach Ravi Shastri dissect the Border-Gavaskar series on The ICC Review