- Solid opening partnership between Rahane and Rohit Sharma
Shikhar Dhawan missed the ODI series against Australia. It gave a chance to Rahane to open with Rohit Sharma. At Chennai and Kolkata, the opening partnership was not great adding just 11, 19. In the next ODI matches, both openers gave a brilliant start. Both Rohit Sharma and Rahane added 3-century partnerships which provided a solid foundation. Both of them put on 139 in 3rd ODI at Indore, 106 in the 4th ODI at Bengaluru and 124 in the 5th ODI at Nagpur.
Rohit Sharma scored 125 in the 5th ODI and was leading runs scorer with 296 runs in 5 matches. Rahane also contributed with 4 half-centuries in the series. With Shikhar Dhawan coming back into the ODI team, Rahane would become the third opener. Rohit Sharma scored 2 half centuries and 1 century. Rahane could not convert starts into big scores.