3 cricket batsmen who became legends after becoming an opener

It is never an easy job to be a good cricketer at international level. Though it predominantly depends on a player's skill and hard work, it is also dependent on having suitable opportunities.

For a team's management, it is important to identify the desirable circumstances to introduce a player. If that is missing, his/her performance will suffer, as he/she has to play in a difficult position.

For an example, international cricket has seen many batsmen whose performance improved tremendously after a change in their batting order.

In this article, we talk about three batsmen who became the legends in ODI cricket after they were made the opener for their respective teams.

#1 Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar and his records are as big as the game itself. He plundered huge runs irrespective of the format. His records in ODI cricket would require an actual superhuman to break them. As an opener, his records are absolutely unassailable, as the nearest challenger, among current players, Chris Gayle has already announced his retirement after the 2019 World Cup .

But interestingly enough, Sachin did not make his ODI debut as an opener. The little master made his ODI debut against Pakistan and scored a duck, batting at number five.

In 1994, when India toured New Zealand, the Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin asked Sachin to open the innings due to regular opener Navjot Singh Sidhu being unfit. It proved to be a masterstroke as Sachin scored a scintillating 82 not out of just 49 balls. After that, except with odd occasions when he came to bat in the middle order, Sachin Tendulkar has opened the innings for India in ODI cricket and set the world on fire with his unprecedented records.

Before becoming the regular opener, Sachin Tendulkar could only manage 1,758 runs at 30.84 run rate in 69 matches. He scored only 13 half-centuries and no century previously.