It is good to have Raina in the plans for future. When Sachin leaves and Kohli moves to No.4, No.5 and No.6 would need full time batsman, Jadeja may not be in starting 11 in the overseas tours. Having Raina, Rahane, Tiwary and Rohit in the plans for middle order slots would be good. Rahane deserves the chance first. One thing that works in favor of Raina is that he is a left hand batsman. While Dhawan played superb, rest of the top 6 struggled to score, except Vijay, who defended solid, when scoring was not easy. It seems Aussie bowlers are struggling to bowl to left hand batsman. Having all top 6 for Delhi test as a right hand batsman is a disadvantage for India. Do not be surprised if horses for courses is invoked again. Either way Rahane should not be worried, He should be given a 3 or 4 matches at a stretch.

It makes absolutely no sense if Raina somehow plays ahead of Rahane. Rahane has been the reserve middle-order batsman for so long and can also open or bat at 3 if Pujara is preferred to open. Shuffling the entire batting order just to accommodate Raina in the lower middle order ahead of Rahane seems too weird even for India. I think Raina is in the squad just as an overall back-up batsman. Remember that India did not name a replacement for Sehwag. Now with Dhawan out, they needed to include a reserve batsman just in case someone else gets a last-minute injury (a situation which once handed Wriddhiman Saha a debut as a pure batsman). Of course, having Raina as a reserve as opposed to anyone else provides the added advantage that Raina is an excellent fielder - which is most likely the only thing he will be required for in Delhi (other than carrying drinks of course)

Wasim Jaffer should be given a chance - he is one of the highest scorers in domestic cricket and it is unfair to overlook him because he is not young. Young or old should make no difference - current form and ability as well as experience should be all that matters. The recent results show that our selectors were mainly responsible for the poor results earlier and they kept old baggage in the team at the expense of new talent for too long. Selection to play for your country should always be done on the basis of the best available talent in the country at the given time and no one should be selected based on something they did in the past. Resting on your laurels destroys performance and kills opportunities for new and fresh talent. In a country of a billion people India has the talent and the ability to perform well, it is upto the BCCI and the selectors to unearth talent and make the right decisions.