"I think the next 8–10 days are crucial for Indian cricket to take a good, honest look at itself," former captain Sunil Gavaskar told news channel India Today.

India coach Gautam Gambhir said veteran batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli still have a future in the team if they want it, despite disappointing returns on the Test tour of Australia.

The acclaimed 37-year-old opener Rohit has had a poor series and the writing was on the wall when he failed to show up for India's pre-match press conference.

Regular skipper and opener Rohit was "rested" for Sydney Test, India said, after failing to get past 10 runs in any of his five innings during the series, which Australia lead 2-1.

Opener Rohit has just one fifty and 10 single-digit scores in his last 15 Test innings, and even a move down the order failed to pay dividends for the 37-year-old.

Rohit also highlighted the need for team-mate Rishabh Pant to bat more sensibly after throwing his wicket away twice in the defeat, which leaves the tourists trailing 2-1 in the series.

Temperatures are forecast to reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) on Thursday, and the Melbourne Cricket Ground curator said during the week he expected the pitch to offer plenty for the fast bowlers.

India captain Rohit Sharma has backed Virat Kohli to overcome his problems with deliveries outside the off-stump in Australia, saying on Tuesday that players of his calibre always find a way to succeed.

Spinner Ravichandran Ashwin will go down as one of India's greatest players after retiring from international cricket on Wednesday aged 38.

India skipper Rohit Sharma's woeful batting form is affecting his captaincy in Australia, according to former teammates Harbhajan Singh and Cheteshwar Pujara.

The hosts won the day-nighter in Adelaide by 10 wickets to level the series 1-1 and with less than a week before they meet again at the Gabba, India are racing against the clock to fix what went wrong.

India coach Gautam Gambhir on Monday backed "incredibly tough men" Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to prove their critics wrong and find form in Australia.

India must start planning for Rohit Sharma's successor if the team do not play well in their five-Test series in Australia as the captain could well retire from the longest format, former skipper Krishnamachari Srikkanth has said.

With Australia looming large, the form of 37-year-old Rohit and superstar batsman Kohli, 35, is of particular concern to Indian cricket fans.

After India's batting frailties were brutally exposed in a 3-0 home series defeat by New Zealand, captain Rohit Sharma said it was important that his players get in the right frame of mind for what promises to be a challenging tour of Australia.

After stunning victories in Bengaluru and Pune, the Black Caps won the third Test in Mumbai by 25 runs to become the first team to whitewash India at home in a series featuring three or more matches.

Batsmen have forgotten how to defend in Test cricket because of the T20 game, India coach Gautam Gambhir said Thursday ahead of the third and final match against New Zealand.

Through three World Cup titles, two World Test Championship (WTC) finals, and a 12-year Test series winning streak on home soil, Kohli and Sharma, often together, have been integral to every major Indian success of the last 17 years.

After a surprising series defeat by New Zealand, India's skipper Rohit Sharma said undue expectation was being put on frontline spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, as he called for more collective bowling efforts to win Test matches.

Seamer Mohammed Shami will not play in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy test series against Australia while spinner Kuldeep Yadav has been sidelined with a groin injury as the country's cricket board (BCCI) announced an 18-member squad on Friday.