Rayudu shouldn't even be added to the comparison as he is an inferior batsmen to begin with. Look, Rahane would never have batted above Dhoni or Raina in a situation like this, the only reason Kohli batted over Dhoni today is because he is Kohli.
What I don't understand is why everyone has already made up their mind about Rahane not being able to close an innings coming in the final 10 overs, yeah ok he's not an out and out power player but he is an attacking player and is always more likely to succeed when looking to play shots than rotating the strike, RAHANE SUCKS AT STRIKE ROTATION! People need to understand that.
Rahane sucks at hitting out too.
He succeeds when playing strokes, but that doesn't translate well to closing out a runchase or accelerating at the death. A huge part of end-of-innings batting is finding singles, and muscling the ball out of the ground.
Rahane's game is much better suited to batting at the top of the order. Fewer men in the deep, so he gets more value for his strokes. Less run-rate pressure, so he can afford to eat up some dots. He is an ideal platform-setter.
Unlike Nohit, Dhawan or Kohli, he can't bat accelerate deep into the innings and unfurl huge hits. He will get starts and then get out. That should work just fine for us when we have the likes of Kohli, Raina and MSD to follow.
With Kohli at 3, we have a top 3 all of whom are capable of playing big match-winning hundreds. But then we lose out on finishing power at the end. If Rahane has to walk in with 120 to get in 20 overs, we're screwed.
Nohit has failed in the middle order, and Dhawan is an out-and-out opener. The best way to arrange the top 4, to me, seems to be Dhawan-Nohit-Rahane-Kohli. And then we got MSD and Raina at the end.