FILE PHOTO: India's captain Virat Kohli celebrates reaching his century during the third day's play in the fourth test against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) January 8, 2015. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - As whispers about the waning powers of India's batting stalwarts and the advancing years of their spin veterans grow louder, the five-test series in Australia marks the beginning of a tricky transition for the side.
India have been a formidable test team for the last decade and had not lost a series on home soil for 12 years until New Zealand snapped that streak with a stunning whitewash earlier this month.
They made the first two World Test Championship finals, albeit losing both, while winning their last two test series in Australia further burnished their credentials in the longest format of the game.
That sheen has dimmed of late, however, with the confident swagger and aggression they displayed on their tours of Australia in 2018-19 and 2020-21 much less evident.
Much of that is down to the diminishing returns from batting stalwarts Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
With more than 27,000 runs in international cricket, including 80 hundreds, Kohli's legacy as a modern batting great is secure but the 36-year-old is currently in the midst of a run drought that shows no signs of abating.
He has managed just two test hundreds in the last five years and only two fifties in his last 14 innings, looking particularly vulnerable to left-arm spin.
Famed for his insatiable hunger for runs, it has been almost painful for Kohli's legion of fans to watch him scratch around at the crease before trudging back to the pavilion.
India's top order crisis has only deepened with skipper Rohit also battling age and lack of form.
The 37-year-old opener has just one fifty in his last 10 test innings and his susceptibility to early swing will have not gone unnoticed by the Australians.
BOWLING WOES
With Kohli and Rohit misfiring, the pressure has mounted on opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and India's middle order to put the kind of scores on the board their bowlers can defend.
But with Shubman Gill nursing a fractured thumb and KL Rahul a bruised elbow, there is uncertainty around the make-up of the batting lineup ahead of the series opener in Perth.
India's bowling unit has not been firing on all cylinders either.
The ever-reliable Jasprit Bumrah will spearhead the pace attack but there are question marks over his supporting cast.
Mohammed Siraj was noticeably out of sorts against New Zealand, Akash Deep has played all his five tests at home, while Prasidh Krishna has not played a test since his second in South Africa at the start of the year.
Spinners are often likened to fine wines in that they tend to improve with age but both Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja risk a sour end to their distinguished careers should they plough on too much longer in the test arena.
At 38, Ashwin went wicketless for only the ninth time in 126 innings on home soil during New Zealand's first innings in Mumbai earlier this month.
Jadeja, who turns 36 next month, did better in that series but the slow-bowling all-rounder has already quit Twenty20 Internationals and is unlikely to hang around in the longest format much longer.
India are still capable of beating Australia, of course, but they must also identify younger talent to step in and fill the void when the veterans finally call it quits.
(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Peter Rutherford)
