Ricky Ponting feels India “will not be clear in their own mind” about the batting order once captain Virat Kohli leaves after the first Test.

The rest will feel the pressure in Kohli’s absence, the twice World Cup-winning captain of Australia said.

“Without Kohli there (for the last three Tests), without his batting and leadership, it will put all sorts of pressure on different Indian players,” Ponting was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

“You’d think (Ajinkya) Rahane will take over the captaincy, which will then put extra pressure on him, while they’ve got to find someone to bat at that really important No. 4 spot. I don’t think they are clear in their own minds even now what their batting order will look like for the first Test not to speak of who’s going to open and who’ll bat at four when Kohli goes?” Ponting added.

Although there are several options as far as India’s pace attack is concerned, Ponting is still of the view that India will have more questions to answer than Australia.

“The questions that are being asked around Australia with (Will) Pucovski and (Cameron) Green, I think India have got a few more questions to answer. (Mohammed) Shami, Jasprit Bumrah are already there, but who’ll be the third quick then? Will it be Ishant (Sharma), will it be Umesh Yadav or will it be a young guy like (Navdeep) Saini or (Mohammed) Siraj?

“And which spinner should they play? ” Ponting asked.

Rohit’s fitness

Rohit Sharma started his fitness training at the National Cricket Academy here on Thursday.

Rohit is not part of India’s limited-overs squad for the Australia tour and selectors included him in the revised Test squad after he played two IPL games for Mumbai Indians apart from the final.

The BCCI felt Rohit needed more time to recover from the hamstring injury he had suffered during this year’s IPL, triggering a massive debate over his fitness status. Rohit had also scored a fluent 68 in the IPL final. PTI