The legendary Sunil Gavaskar on Monday lashed out at senior players such as Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for letting the team down and blamed the Indian top-order for losing the Boxing Day Test against Australia.

The Indian batters, with the exception of Yashasvi Jaiswal (84), faltered yet again to lose the match by 184 runs.

"It all depends on the selectors. The contributions that were expected have not come. It is the top-order which has to contribute, if the top-order is not contributing, why blame the lower-order. The seniors have not really made the contribution that they should have, all that they had to do was bat out today and live to fight another day in Sydney. …it's just that the top-order didn't contribute and that is the reason India found itself in this position," Gavaskar said.

Meanwhile, former India coach Ravi Shastri believes that Kohli still has four years of cricket left in him but skipper Rohit may need to assess his future after the ongoing series against Australia, considering his prolonged struggle with form and technique in the traditional format of the game.

Rohit has managed just 31 runs across five innings, scoring 3, 6, 10, 3 and 9 at a dismal average of 6.20, the lowest by a touring captain on the Australian soil. Kohli, despite a hundred in the Perth Test, has struggled with consistency, scoring 5, 100 not out, 7, 11, 3, 36 and 5 in the series so far.

"I think Kohli will play for another three or four years," Shastri said. "As far as Rohit is concerned, it's a call. At the top of the order, just feel the footwork isn't the same. He's probably late at times in meeting the ball. So, it's his call at the end of the series."

Former pacer Irfan Pathan believes Rohit wouldn't find a place in the playing XI on current form if he was not the India captain. "The way Rohit is struggling now, it seems his form is not supporting him at all. What's happening now is that he is the captain, so he is playing. If he were not the captain, he might not be playing right now," he said.

India's WTC final hopes still alive

India may have lost the Boxing Day contest but all is not lost as far as their chances of qualifying for the World Test Championship (WTC) final are concerned. To qualify for the final, India must win the last Test of the series against Australia at Sydney and then hope for a positive result for Sri Lanka (or a 0-0 draw) when Australia tour the island national early next year. India's point percentage (PCT) has dropped from 55.89 to 52.78. Australia have boosted their PCT to 61.46. South Africa have already qualified for the WTC final. If India manage to win in Sydney, they will have 55.26 PCT and Australia will have 54.26. One win out of the two Tests against Sri Lanka then would be enough for Australia to go past India's PCT and join the Proteas in the final.