Are Rohit and Kohli replaceable in Tests? Cricket great feels if only one team can do it quickly, it's...

It’s never easy to replace great players in a team, regardless of the sport, and former Australia captain and cricket giant Ricky Ponting feels the same. Speaking on whether India can replace their two stalwarts, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, in the Test side following their shock retirements, Ponting said even the best of the teams have struggled during a transition period; however, if one cricket team can do it quickly, it’s only India, further explaining how.

India’s talent depth is enormous; even the outsiders believe so. Having been associated with the country’s cash-rich IPL since its inception in different capacities, Ponting explains how quickly they can replace talent with a better one waiting in the wings. However, he stays true to his words on how challenging it is for any cricket side to fill the voids left by the players of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s magnitude.

"It's always very hard to replace players like that that have been around for so long, that have played that much Test cricket. But if any country can do it and do it quickly, India can because of the amount of young talent that they have," Ponting said while speaking on the ICC Review.

"I've seen it first hand for 10 years now around the IPL, and we've seen the emergence of Jaiswal and these sort of guys that have come into international cricket with India and done really well pretty much straight away,” he continued.

Although he points out that India can replace skill with skill in that playing XI, compensating for the loss of experience with their departure would be challenging for them. He, however, also noted that should any team do it quickly, it’s the Indian Cricket Team.

"The skill side of it's one thing to replace, and I think India will replace the skill side of it easily enough, but the experience is the big thing that's going to be missing for them. So now, even with a young captain with Shubman Gill, they'll still have some experience around with KL, Rahul and Bumrah and these sorts of guys.

"But, I think if you look at a rebuilding sort of phase, I think India can cope with it better than most other teams,” Ponting continued.

Meanwhile, Shubman Gill-led Indian Team will begin their away tour of England with the first of the five Tests at Leeds starting June 20.