This despite the proven fact that Rahane has been India's most consitent batsman on seaming tracks, scoring at an average of 53.44 in 24 away games
Rohit Sharma has been around for more than a decade after making his ODI debut against Ireland in 2007. Having played more than 250 international games for his country, he has been given additional responsibility to lead India in the absence of Virat Kohli.
Shikhar Dhawan is two years older than his skipper but has been playing around for almost more than a decade and a half now, playing for India 'A' and in domestic tournaments besides international cricket. He can only feel bad that he got his chance in Team India much later in 2013. Nevertheless, Dhawan also has played nearly 150 international matches (28 Tests, 94 ODIs and 28 T20s) in the last four years.
Dinesh Karthik is the senior-most in the current squad, having got his India cap in 2004. He can only blame it on his poor or inconsistent run for playing just over 100 international games since then.
Last but not the least, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has probably played more international matches than anyone else (483 to be precise) in the current cricketing world and nearing his retirement.
If such an experienced campaigners are batting at Nos. 1, 2, 4 and 6, any team would be proud of such a batting line up. But new Team India ODI skipper Sharma felt that "this young batting group will learn from mistakes" after the seven-wicket loss to Sri Lanka here on Sunday.
He, however, made it clear that there is no place for Ajinkya Rahane in the team as middle-order batsman and unless there is a space in the opening slot, his Mumbai team-mate would have to sit out waiting for his chance. This despite the proven fact that Rahane has been India's most consitent batsman on seaming tracks, scoring at an average of 53.44 in 24 away games.
Such a signal coming from the team management right before a tough South Africa tour simply means the chances of India's most successful overseas player in recent years playing ODIs in the Rainbow Nation will also depend on others' failures.
"We have identified him (Rahane) as a top-order (opening) batsman and that's the only reason he has to sit out. Having said that, we understand the runs he scored in the past few series. We want to give these guys (Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav and Shreyas Iyer) a fair amount of game before we start touring abroad. It's important that they take the opportunity," Sharma explained.
But coming back to the team's failure to tackle the Lankan seam bowler Suranga Lakmal, Sharma conveniently cited lack of experience in batting order for such a failure instead of their technical deficiencies.
"If you notice, any bowler who bowled in that channel would have got wickets. For us, we were trying to survive in those conditions because we knew that if the initial overs get over, the pitch will get better but we lost wickets and we were also not scoring in that pace also which put us in even more trouble," said the Indian skipper.
When asked what was the solution to India's struggle on seaming tracks, Sharma said: "It was an eye opener, we will learn from it. It is a young batting group, the guys, including myself, will learn and play out of these situations well the next time."
While Rahane averages 23.56 at home, the same is more than double at 53.44 in 24 away matches, making him the most valuable batsman of his team. There is no doubt that Rahane's form in the ongoing series is an awful one, but then playing him in ODIs can only make him gain some confidence ahead of a tour where his average is a healthy 69.66 (in Tests).
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