‘Your top four have to be the best players’ – Sourav Ganguly

After the 2-1 series loss to England in the ODIs, Virat Kohli admitted the middle order was an area of concern for the side. Ganguly, however, believed the constant chopping and changing of the playing XI hadn't helped matters.

He pointed to the situation of KL Rahul. The versatile batsman scored a scintillating century in the first Twenty20 International in Manchester, but was dropped for the final ODI in Leeds after three poor scores across formats.

Ganguly said it was priority for India to sort out the No.4 slot in ODIs, and said Rahul was the best candidate for the role. “Your top four have to be the best players, you have to persist with them,” Ganguly told Sony Pictures Network. “Go and speak to KL Rahul, and say ‘I'll give you 15 games, just go and play’.

“India need a No. 4. MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik are very good at five, six and seven. But a top-class player has to be at four.”

When specifically asked why India didn’t seem to have a settled side, just a year away from the World Cup, Ganguly didn't mince words.

“Because they don't give enough opportunities," he said. "Rahul got a magnificent hundred in Manchester. In the other two T20Is, he was out to one brilliant catch in Bristol. He was not out in Nottingham, missed out at Lord's and then he's dropped. You won't be able to produce players like that.”

Ganguly added that with a regular, consistent No.4 batsman, the benefit would be felt through the line-up, including with MS Dhoni, who has been struggling to score quickly in recent outings.

“If Dhoni's got to play, he has to get into positions where he has to keep hitting,” said the former captain. “If he has 24-25 overs to play, you've got to build an innings and he's struggling at the moment.

“He may turn it around, you don't know what's in store for great players – he's been a great player for India in the shorter formats – but at the present moment he's not been turning it around and it's been that way for a year, year-and-a-half or probably more.

“So they need a good player at four and five, and then if they think MS Dhoni is the way forward, him at six and Pandya at seven.”