Players who have played the most innings at each batting position (ODIs)
One-Day Internationals have undergone plenty of transformations since Ashes rivals Australia and England faced off against each other for the time in 1971.
Fielding restrictions to powerplay overs, the all-whites to coloured clothing and eight-ball overs to six-ball overs as well as the change from sixty overs a side to fifty - the ODI version of the game has seen a lot of changes but has still managed to remain relevant, even if it may have lost out to T20 cricket in terms of popularity.
With time being a premium in the abridged format, batsmen play more aggressively and it is very unlikely that batsman lower down the line-up get to be in the middle as much as they want.
The team management would invariably want the best batsmen in the side to spend maximum time out in the middle as the list for most ODI innings played in each position would suggest, the gap in the number of innings gets bigger as we move down.
We start off the list with the player who has batted the most as an opener in ODI history.
#Opener - Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka) - 383 innings
India's Sachin Tendulkar might be head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to making most runs as an opener in ODI history, but it is Sanath Jayasuriya who holds the record for most innings played as an opener in the 50-over format.
The duo are way ahead of the rest but there is some daylight between the Top as well with the Sri Lankan all-rounder opening the innings in 383 of his 445 ODIs compared to Tendulkar's tally of 340.
He scored 12740 runs as an opener at an average of 34.61, scoring 28 ODI hundreds and his career-best knock of 189 came against India at Sharjah in 2000.
Jayasuriya excelled at the top, playing an instrumental role in helping Sri Lanka lift the 1996 ODI Wolrd Cup with his explosive batting alongside Romesh Kaluwitharana.
He had an extended career with the national side and is, in fact, the third most capped player in ODI history.
