There's no hiding the fact that seniors like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma failed to stand up to the challenge in Australia and deliver runs from their bat. While the retirement topic is already looming over India captain Rohit, Kohli too is in the line of fire over his failure to correct the only mistake that has resulted in his dismissals on the tour Down Under. India great Sunil Gavaskar didn't mince his words as he gave selectors food for thought over the future of senior players in the Indian team like Kohli and Rohit.
Speaking specifically of Kohli's case, Gavaskar said that his foot movement is to be blamed for the repeated dismissals while playing outside off deliveries.
"The (Kohli's) foot is not going to the pitch of the ball, the foot is going straight down the pitch, not towards the ball. If the foot goes more towards the ball, you have more chances of hitting the ball from the middle," Gavaskar told India Today.
"Because the foot is not moving, you end up reaching for the ball, and that is what has been happening," he added.
As the topic of moving on from the seniors emerges, Gavaskar feels the BCCI selection committee chief Ajit Agarkar and other selectors have to take a call as the required contributions from seniors in the top order haven't come.
"It all depends on the selectors. The contributions that were expected have not come. It is the top-order which has to contribute, if the top-order is not contributing, why blame the lower-order," he added.
"The seniors have not really made the contribution that they should have, all that they had to do was bat out today and live to fight another day in Sydney," Gavaskar asserted.
In fact, Gavaskar feels seniors' failure remains the biggest reason behind India finding themselves in this sort of situation in Australia.
"...it's just that the top order didn't contribute and that is the reason India found itself in this position," he added.