12 best ODI opening batsmen of all-time?

[Harsh Thakor]

12 best ODI Opening batsmen of all time selected in my order of merit.

1.Sachin Tendulkar
2.Sanath Jayasuriya
3.Adam Gilchrist
4.Gordon Greenidge
5.Virendra Sehwag
6.Desmond Haynes
7.Chris Gayle
8Graham Gooch
9.Glen Turner
10.Saed Anwar
11.Saurav Ganguly
12.Matthew Hayden


Very complex to accurately rank but Tendulkar stands on another pedestal with his phenomenal record.Sannath virtually pioneered a new form of batting dominating bowling from the word go.Gilchrist followed in his footsteps with Sehwag taking attacking aggression to another dimension..Sehwag had more skill but Gily was more of a match-winner.Greenidge took batitng skills and domination to region sof the sublime.Hyanes was a connoiseur of the 1980'sscoring more centuries than anyone.On his day Chris Gayle could join the very best creating effect of thunder in a stadium.At his best Turner took batting craft to it's supreme depth while Graham Gooch and Saed Anwar exhibited a great range of strokes.Ganguly was one of the most delightful to watch bu a cricketing connoiseur on the offside and won many a match.Hayden was like a bating machine on his day.

 

[BreadPakoda]

What about Rohit Sharma with 3 double centuries and Hashim Amla with a great average at a good SR?

 

[Harsh Thakor]

What about Rohit Sharma with 3 double centuries and Hashim Amla with a great average at a good SR?

Could well make it .Maybe should have.Rohit was not against the best of bowling while Hashim not so much a match-winner.

 

[Ab Fan]

Sehwag wasn't all that good in one-days. His stats are misleading.

I put Lara at 5 and Anwar has to be high as well.

 

[Justcrazy]

Sehwag was very good in tests , in OD he was average.

 

[The_Odd_One]

Tendulkar is undisputed #1 then there are some.

How is Dilshan with over 8K runs and 48 average not in the top 10? He's easily the 2nd best opener in ODIs.

Here's a rough list without ranking:

Tendulkar
Dilshan
Jayasuriya
Waugh
Anwar
Ganguly
Greenidge
Haynes
Warner
Sharma
Dhawan
Gilchrist

 

[BreadPakoda]

Could well make it .Maybe should have.Rohit was not against the best of bowling while Hashim not so much a match-winner.

Then let's not mix Anwar's test and ODI exploits here. While he very well stood his ground in test cricket, he was a proper trundler attack bully in ODIs. His numbers against the top teams were abysmal even for the 90s standards.