Sydney, Jan. 6 -- No one in the team will say it but they are all surely thinking it. If you are a player who has been around for a while, non-performance is like a crown of thorns. You have seen it claim careers before. And for a junior, it represents an opportunity.

This Australia tour has given us a glimpse of both sides of the coin. But the sight of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, the most senior and respected batters struggling and failing over and over again, was tough to digest. At one level, it made fans wonder why are they still around, and that thought was a fair reflection of their recent form.

India skipper Rohit, who sat himself out of the Sydney Test, made 31 runs at an average of 6.20 in the series. Kohli, on the other hand, ...