India will keep losing, Shastri & Bangar need to be answerable: Ganguly

Former Indian Captain Sourav Ganguly is not happy with the shoddy batting show in the overseas conditions. After keeping the 5 matches Test series alive with a thumping win over England at Trent Bridge, India faced another 60-run defeat in the 4th test at Southampton.

England has now picked an unassailable 3-1 lead and Virat Kohli and Co., especially the batters, have come under radar of criticism. In an exclusive interview with IndiaTV, Sourav Ganguly slammed Indian batting for their poor show in overseas conditions. He also said that team management should be held accountable for the same.

Dada said that head coach Ravi Shastri and batting coach Sanjay Bangar should address the issues which is affecting the team. “Regarding Ravi Shastri, he has to be held accountable for the results along with Sanjay Bangar regarding why only one batsman is performing whereas others seem to have taken backward steps. Unless these questions are answered an overseas series win in the three countries looks impossible for India,” Ganguly said.

Apart from Virat Kohli, who is the leading run scorer in the series and has amassed 544 runs so far, nobody else has looked in color. While the Indian opening have been miserable throughout the series, veterans Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have only scored in patches and are short of confidence.

In last 7 away Test matches, India has lost 5. Dada agreed that the Southampton Test was a close contest but apart from Kohli the Indian batting is not even able to chase down moderate scores. After Kohli departed in the second innings, commentators started saying that India will lose the match and was the case.

“If you look at India’s overseas performances from 2011 until now, they have lost every big series. This is happening for quite some time now, match after match, innings after innings. Just taking 20 wickets won’t win you matches, you have to score runs as well,” Ganguly concluded.

India’s repeated flop show with the bat outside the sub-continent has become a subject to worry about. India will face England at The Oval for the fifth test starting on Friday.