3 Indian Cricketers to be Exiled After IND vs AUS 5th Test 2025 in Sydney

Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Mohammad Siraj are on the management’s radar for their mediocre performances for a long time. The three have been underperforming since India toured South Africa in 2023/24. This puts added pressure on the team and has not yielded a fruitful result. After the disastrous downfall of the Boxing Day test in MCG, these three are most likely to lose the favor of management. While the two can announce retirement going ahead, Siraj can face setbacks as a drop, citing rest or workload management.

Let’s have a look at their performances since the South Africa tour and before IND vs AUS 5th Test 2025:

Virat Kohli

Opponent	Mats	Inns	Runs	Avg	HS	100s
South Africa (2023-24)	2	4	172	43	76	0
Bangladesh	2	4	99	33	47	0
New Zealand	3	6	93	15.50	70	0
Australia	4	7	167	27.83	100*	1
Total	11	21	531	29.83	100*	1

Virat Kohli’s mediocrity has prolonged for more than 5 years now. Ever since 2019, Kohli has not looked like a proper test player. In blue jersey, he looks exceptional in his approach. But as soon as he is in the whites, he looks like a shadow of his batting brilliance. The batting maestro has not had a good series in a long time now and may be asked to retire after the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024/25.

Virat Kohli showed a great sign in the 2023 test season where in 12 innings, he amassed 671 runs at an average of 56. He also notched 2 centuries and 2 half-centuries during the phase. The same year, he had a record-breaking World Cup run notching up 765 runs at a staggering average of nearly 96. His incredible run after a longer slippery run gave a glimpse of another peak of Virat’s career.

But once again, his poor batting performance let the team down in the series against New Zealand. Against Bangladesh, he failed to deliver again, a series that was thought to boost his confidence. His struggle against the spinners was completely exposed. His foot movement and fading skills of reading the deliveries haunted him badly in these two series.

His strength of playing the outside off-stump balls has become one of the major reasons for his downfall. The ghost of nicking the ball is haunting him in every match. In the ongoing series, he has been getting out repeatedly in the same fashion. All 6 dismissals have been the same. The urge and adamance to play the ball away from the body is costing him and the team too much now.

In the ongoing BGT 2024/25, Virat has been consistently getting out to the outside off-stump deliveries. His rigidity in sticking to his natural attacking game has brought down his average below 50. In 4 matches, Kohli has gotten out 6 times, nicking the ball to the keeper or edging it to the slip fielders. Sydney is the last chance where Virat will be looking to shut the mouth of all critics.

Rohit Sharma

Opponent	Mats	Inns	Runs	Avg	HS	100s
South Africa (2023-24)	2	4	61	20.33	39	0
England	5	9	400	44.44	131	2
Bangladesh	2	4	42	10.50	23	0
New Zealand	3	6	91	15.17	52	0
Australia	3	5	31	6.20	10	0
Total	15	25	625	19.33	131	2

A prolific opener and the senior most player in the setup is in the sunset of his career. Once seen as a regular member of the test squad following his debut series, Rohit had a fantastic run between 2019 and 2023 where he kept piling on the runs and accumulated nearly 2100 test runs. The decision to open the innings with him did wonders for the team and it led to many sweet victories overseas. In the away series against England in 2021, Rohit was the leading run scorer for India with 368 runs. In the home tour, he amassed a staggering 400 runs as well against England. In the home Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2023, Rohit played his part in India retaining and winning the trophy. He scored 242 in 6 innings and was the third-highest run-getter for India.

Rohit has been now failing miserably in every inning since the Bangladesh tour. He looks a bit in a hurry and ends up giving his wicket free of cost without any contributions. With age not on his side, his hand-eye coordination seems to have taken a toll. After the T20 World Cup 2024, this failure as a Test batsman also affected his captaincy.

One weakness that has been haunting Rohit for a long time and came to the limelight again was his difficulties in facing back-of-length deliveries that resulted in his stumps getting uprooted from the ground. This difficulty was exploited well by the bowlers who kept bowling in the right channel, keeping him under pressure. Rohit wasn’t able to get go and this also became a major cause of his downfall against Bangladesh, New Zealand, and Australia.

Mohammad Siraj

Opponent	Mats	Inns	Wkts	Avg	SR	Best
South Africa (2023-24)	2	4	9	15.22	28	6/15
England	4	8	6	46.00	67.17	4/84
Bangladesh	2	4	4	34.50	61.75	2/30
New Zealand	2	3	2	58.00	93	2/84
Australia	4	8	16	31.44	48.44	4/98
Total	14	27	37	37.03	59.67	6/15

Siraj has been a regular squad member for a long time since the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2020/21, it feels that this series could be a long break for him as his form dropped a lot. Starting as an attacking bowler, Siraj continues to lose his charm in the test matches. Earlier, his bowl felt like doing something on the field and kept the players and fans on the edge. But of late, he has become a run-conceding machine. More than anyone else, this has been damaging Bumrah’s relentless efforts, apart from a few occasional performances.

Siraj has looked completely off-color but in the 2nd innings of the MCG test witnessed Siraj gaining his form back but that might not work to get him the seat where the management has an opportunity to Test Prasidh Krishna. However, this has not been a regular case for quite some time. The mediocrity is haunting the team and Siraj badly and devastatingly. Siraj needs to return to the domestic, do a hard grind, and return like a warrior.

Test cricket demands a lot of patience, it’s not easy to maintain consistency but it is not also about giving the right to play false shots. This inconsistency has brought Rohit’s confidence down both as a leader and a batter. If seniors like Rohit and Virat become easy victims of the opponents, it’s also disappointing to watch and puts pressure on the other team members to do the job. While Siraj can go back to the domestic structure, grind more, and get back to the team. The three are most likely to see the door after this series. It would be better for Ro-Ko to step aside and pave the way for the younger generation.