After former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly, veteran cricketer and past chairman of selectors committee Dilip Vengsarkar has slammed Indian team management for not backing Mr Dependable Ajinkya Rahane and wicket-keeper batsman Lokesh Rahul.

Vengsarkar blasted the BCCI for not having a settled number four batsman in the team.

“Number 3 and number 4 is the most crucial pair,” Vengsarkar told Hindustan Times, adding, “It speaks poorly of the selectors that we don’t have a settled number 4. How can you unsettle batsmen of the calibre of Rahul and Rahane?”

Vengsarkar also questioned Ajinkya Rahane’s snub from ODI team for England tour. “If Ajinkya cannot fit in the ODI squad, there is something more to it than meets the eye. How can you drop Rahane in the next match India is playing (ODIs) after captaining the (Test) team against Afghanistan? How can you not have confidence in your top players of the calibre of Rahane, a proven player in English conditions?”

“What’s going on? If you are going to play musical chairs then the confidence of the top players player’s will take a beating,” he added.

“It doesn’t augur well for the future. He (Rahul) has been unsettled, which is not good for a quality batsman,” Vengsarkar concluded.

Earlier, after India’s series defeat against England, Sourav Ganguly had criticised BCCI for “not looking after” KL Rahul and ‘Ajinkya Rahane. Ganguly also said that the constant experimentation in the middle-order is hurting the “top-heavy” side.

“Eyes closed, I will have Rahul at four. Your top four have to be the best players and you got to persist with them. Go and speak to Rahul and say ‘we will give you 15 games’. Just go and play. They (the team management) are not giving enough opportunities at the moment. Rahul got the fantastic hundred at Manchester and now he was dropped. You won’t be able to produce players like that. Same for Rahane,” Ganguly had said in his post-match analysis on the official broadcaster.

“These are your two best batsmen. You have to have a solid number four and five. Then you decide between Dinesh Karthik or MS Dhoni at six and Hardik Pandya at seven,” Sourav Ganguly added.

“I think, two of your best batsmen (Rahane and Rahul) are not being looked after properly. I am not saying it is deliberate but it is my opinion that either of the two have to be played at four because it is too much of a pressure, especially on Rohit and Virat Kohli,” Sourav Ganguly concluded.