Asia Cup: Difficult to find a place for Ajinkya Rahane, says Mahendra Singh Dhoni

At the same time, Dhoni rated Rahane among the top three Indian batsmen in the IPL.

New Delhi: Call it a dilemma of being Ajinkya Rahane or sheer bad luck, but the fact is that even after ticking all the boxes, the Mumbai batsman has been struggling to find a regular place in MS Dhoni's playing XI in T20Is.

Though Dhoni rated Rahane among the top three Indian batsmen in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Indian skipper once again made it clear that it's difficult for the right-handed batsman to find a place in the team.

Ahead of the forthcoming T20I tournaments, Asia Cup and ICC World T20, Dhoni insisted that in the shortest format the 27-year-old is best suited to open the innings, as he lacks the muscle power to excel as a lower-order slogger.

But with both Shikhar Dhawan and Rohti Sharma is good touch, it's almost impossible to change the combination and accomodate Rahane.

“When both the openers perform well, it makes life slightly difficult for the skipper... Rahane, at the end of the day, is a fantastic player but you also have to consider the fact that in Twenty20, he is somebody who has done really well when he is opening the batting,” the India captain told reporters on Tuesday.

“If you look at the team we have got for the Twenty20 World Cup, you find it difficult to find a place for him,” added Dhoni.

Rahane has been speed-dating for India in all-three formats for quite sometime now, but as far as T20Is are concerned he hardly gets a chance to break into the playing XI.