‘Do they have the ability?’ - Simon Doull questions Rohit Sharma-Virat Kohli’s mental ability to get out of form slump

Team India suffered a historic Test series loss against New Zealand. India lost every single Test match of the three-game series as New Zealand completely dominated the hosts in their backyard. There were many performances from the hosts that were questioned, but no one came under the radar as much as Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.

In the three Tests, apart from Kohli’s 70-run knock in the first Test, both Rohit and Kohli failed to go big and departed for low scores throughout the series, resulting in a whitewash for the hosts. After the Test series loss, former New Zealand cricketer Simon Doull took centre stage and questioned the mental ability of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to come back to form. He did opine that both men possess the ability to turn things around but did highlight how tough it would be. 

"From when you've been at such a high level and you have a little form slump or things just aren't quite working out you look for things within yourself. What am I doing wrong? Do I need to change something? Are the eyes just slightly less as effective as they were five years ago when I was seeing everything like a pumpkin. They do grow on you as you get a little bit older. Rohit is in the same boat,” Doull was quoted as saying by IndiaToday.

They can come back and do it again: Doull

Furthermore, Simon Doull talked about how tough it gets to get back to winning form as a player approaches the twilight of his career. Majorly, he attached this insight to the rigorous regime which is easier to follow in the younger days for a player while it takes nearly double the effort as a player ages with time. Interestingly, Doull also added that even though ageing can be an important factor, so far it has not shown much effect on the duo of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli as yet. Hence, there was every chance that both the stalwarts can bounce back any moment in the coming days ahead.

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"The later in your career you go, the less success you have or the less success you have as you get older. If you find it very, very tough mentally to get back to that position to put yourself through the hard rigours of the training, the preparation. I don't think any of these two guys have dropped off as far as that is concerned, but they're still not quite getting the rewards,” Doull said.