India head coach Gautam Gambhir on Monday (November 11) put his faith on under-fire senior batters, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, after criticism from former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting.

Commenting on Kohli’s extended lean patch, Ponting had suggested that any other player with only two centuries in five years would not have survived in the team.

Gambhir termed Ponting's opinions on Indian cricket irrelevant, and affirmed that Kohli and Rohit have a lot of passion and hunger for the team.

"What does Ponting have to do with Indian cricket? I think he should think about Australian cricket. More importantly, I have got no concerns whatsoever for Virat and Rohit," Gambhir said during an interaction with media before leaving for Australia.

Amidst all this, former Australian cricketer Michael Hussey expressed confidence that both Kohli and Rohit will regain their form in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, starting November 22 in Perth.

"We will find out in the first Test match where they are at, mentally and from a skill perspective as well. They will be hurt by this, India. They have got a lot of crowd pullers and quality. We just heard from Gambhir talking about Rohit and Kohli not making runs. The silliest thing you can do is to write off champion players. We have seen it so many times in the past - they come under criticism, but they come out and perform really well," Hussey said in a conversation with Fox Cricket.

"So, I'm backing them to perform well in Australia. They are proud Indians and proud Test players. But, I still feel Australia will start favourites," he added.

Speaking in a recent episode of the ICC Review, Ricky Ponting described Virat Kohli’s dip in form as ‘concerning’.

"I saw a stat the other day about Virat, it said he's only scored two (three) Test hundreds in the last five years. That didn't seem right to me, but if that is right, then that is, I mean, that's a concern," Ponting said.

"There wouldn't be anyone else probably even playing international cricket as a top-order batsman that's only scored two Test match hundreds in five years."

"I've said it before about Virat, you don't ever question the greats of the game. There's no doubt, he's a great of the game. He loves playing against Australia. In fact, I know he loves playing against Australia. And as I said, his record (in Australia) is very good. If there's a time for him to turn it around, it'd be this series.

"So I wouldn't be surprised to see Virat make runs in the first game."