'We have identified him as an opening batsman and that's the only reason he had to sit out.'
His technique against pacers was solely missed on a seamer-friendly track in Dharamsala and India stand-in-captain Rohit Sharma admitted that accommodating Ajinkya Rahane is tough as he is considered a specialist opening batsman in the 50-over format by the team management.
Rahane, who scored four successive half-centuries against Australia, was on Sunday left out of the playing eleven in the first ODI against Sri Lanka, with debutant Shreyas Iyer preferred at No. 3 and Manish Pandey was picked for the No. 5 slot.
While Rahane was ignored despite a good run with the bat against Australia, Pandey had retained his place despite not hitting a single half-century in his last five games and Iyer was handed his ODI debut.
Both Pandey and Iyer's poor technique against the moving ball was exposed as they scored just nine and two respectively.
"I think we made it clear in Sri Lanka that he is an opening batsman and we don't want to keep changing his batting slot. It plays on anyone's mind not just his, if one's batting order is kept on changing.
"We have identified him as an opening batsman and that's the only reason he had to sit out. Having said that we understand the runs he scored in the past few series. But we wanted to give these guys Pandey, (Kedar) Jadhav, Iyer fair amount of game before we start touring abroad. It's important that they take the opportunity," said Rohit at the post match press conference after India went down by seven wickets.
After India were bundled out for 112 in 38.2 overs, the visitors cruised to victory in just 20.4 overs.
While none of the Indian batsman could put up a fight, Mahendra Singh Dhoni stood amid the ruins with a gritty 65 and Rohit heaped praise on the former skipper.
"He has been at that situation so many times and has proved himself again and again. First of all, I never understood why there was a talk of him being in our plans or not. Once he gets runs the whole conversation changes.
"He showed us again. I wish one of our top order was batting, so that we could have got more runs. But we learn from it and move forward," said Rohit.
Asked if India's batting collapse is a cause of concern considering that India would be touring South Africa for a Test series under same kind of conditions, Rohit said: "This is a one-day side, I don't think there is any comparison.
"With the Test team we struggled in Kolkata as well but any team in those type of conditions will struggle. I have seen enough cricket and we recently saw Ashes as well, what was happening there as well."
Defending India's inexplicable batting collapse, Rohit said Sri Lankan bowlers used the tough conditions to their advantage.
"In conditions like these, only one or two batsmen will score, not all batsmen will score runs. I don't think we played any rash shots, but they bowled at the right channel, kept us guessing all the time and batsmen were made to play all the time.
"We knew conditions were going to be tough but sometimes when you are put in such situations, you have to bat the situation, which means we got to respect the bowlers. This experience will teach us a lot of things as a team. We take it in our stride and move forward. Again if we are put in that situation we will respond better," said the captain.
On Jasprit Bumrah dismissing Upul Tharanga on a no-ball, Rohit said it didn't cost India the match as they didn't have enough runs to defend.
"We lost the game with the bat and not with the ball. It will be unfair to single out one individual, especially a bowler. I think we as a batting group failed. Nobody knew it will happen but this is the game that we play and they go out there trying their best.
"I wouldn't say it cost us dearly, because there was not enough total on the board. If we were defending 180-190, but if you are defending 110, you can hardly do anything except with the new ball and comeback into the game."
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