When Australia’s pacemen take on Kohli, especially on a pitch with some seam movement like Adelaide, proceedings take on an extremely familiar tone. Kohli and the bowlers know exactly what the other is trying to do, and for some time now the former Indian skipper has been unable to break the cycle.

“The technique that he’s developed to counter that line outside off stump, the swinging ball, has not really made his life easier,” Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar told ESPNcricinfo during the Test. “When he got that hundred in that last game I thought ‘let’s find out whether just the dearth of runs is contributing to the mistakes he’s making’.

“Now with the monkey off the back you expected a Virat Kohli who was much more relaxed and looking in better shape, but clearly, that was a problem earlier of no runs plus a technical issue. But after getting a hundred, that he was troubled by that same line shows that he’s got a serious technical issue that he just can’t find a solution to.”

Josh Hazlewood, another spectator in Adelaide, said the recent preference for Test players to want to feel the bat on the ball has made it easier to hang the ball slightly wider and await an outside edge.

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“I don’t think batters are probably as patient as they were 10 years ago. They like to feel that bat on ball more,” he said. “I think the further you go in the series, you start to get those match ups and who’s on top of who, and vice versa, and, I think it’s definitely a positive.”

For Rohit, whose last 12 Test innings have returned scores of 6, 5, 23, 8, 2, 52, 0, 8, 18, 11, 3 and 6, there are problems of multiple kinds. India’s team did not look stronger for his return, after Jasprit Bumrah led so strongly in Perth and other batters stepped up.

Then there are technical matters around adapting his footwork to cope with the moving ball, rather than assuming the power positions that made Rohit so threatening during recent white ball campaigns.

“He takes a small step forward and the bat is just sort of dangling there in a way and hoping that the ball comes and hits it,” Manjrekar said. “Rohit Sharma’s defence has been better but we’ve also talked about how in the last couple of years there’s been so much white ball cricket and in some ways that [defensive] quality wasn’t needed.

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“Now the way he looked as well when he was batting out there, the body language just exuded a complete lack of confidence and somebody who is struggling for runs.

“Rohit Sharma is clearly struggling with the defence, which is the most important thing you need in Test cricket. He doesn’t have confidence in his defence, plus the preparation is thoroughly inadequate for a man who is in this current shape.”

And while India’s former coach Ravi Shastri has argued that Rohit should lead from the front by returning to the top of the order, such a post will only heighten the technical challenges: just ask Smith.

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