Ricky Ponting's dumping from the Australia one-day squad has led to debate in India over Sachin Tendulkar's own future in the 50-over game.

Ponting's demise has provoked speculation over Tendulkar's place in the game with former players Kapil Dev and Sourav Ganguly querying whether the Indian great should follow a similar course and focus solely on Test matches.

The 38-year-old has struggled for most of the tour of Australia, with his wait for a 100th international hundred now stretching through 11 Tests and nine one-dayers after his 111 against South Africa in the World Cup last March.

It is his longest gap in an international career stretching back to 1989 without a ton and 1983 World Cup winning captain Dev believes it could be time for Tendulkar to call time on his storied career.

"Maybe his time has come," Dev said of the 'Little Master' on the Headlines Today news channel. "Every player has his time. Age is not on his side as it was earlier."

In five games of the tri-series against Australia and Sri Lanka, Tendulkar has managed just 90 runs at 18.

Ganguly, a former Test captain, said Tendulkar's habit of picking and choosing which matches to play in was costing his team dear.

"Sachin has to ask himself whether it's helping him as a one-day player or if it's helping the Indian team," Ganguly told Headlines Today.

"If Sachin can't get an answer to these questions, he has to go."

Tendulkar, who has played a record 458 one-day internationals, has turned out in just 18 ODI matches in the past two years, including nine in India's triumphant World Cup campaign in February-April 2011.

He still managed to record the first-ever double-century in ODIs - 200 not out against South Africa in February 2010 - and was the star performer in India's World Cup win with 482 runs, second only to Sri Lankan Tillakaratne Dilshan's 500.

"It affects everyone's form if Tendulkar keeps coming in and going out of one-day tournaments," Ganguly said. "I said after the World Cup that Sachin needed to look at his one-day career because he had achieved everything in one-day cricket."

Ganguly dismissed batting legend Sunil Gavaskar's suggestion that the selectors should talk to Tendulkar about his one-day future.

"I don't see any of the selectors stepping in," Ganguly said. "They are not going to stand in front of Sachin Tendulkar and say 'Listen little champ, you need to go'. That is never going to happen."

In the immediate term, Tendulkar has two games - against Australia on Sunday and Sri Lanka next Tuesday - and a possible best-of-three-finals if India qualify, to silence his critics.