3. Sachin Tendulkar:
One of the greatest exponent of the game, Sachin Tendulkar started his career as a middle order batsman. In his 70 th ODI match against in 1994 against New Zealand, he was forced to open the innings because Navjot Singh Sidhu was injured and no one else in the team was keen to open.The move changed his and India’s fortune forever as he went on to become one of the greatest ODI player of all time.
He scored 82 off 49 balls – a strike rate of 167.34 – in that match in which no other batsman who faced more than 12 balls managed a rate of 75.
From the moment he started opening, his ODI career graph took a huge leap and remained high almost throughout his illustrious career. From March 27, 1994, which was the first time he opened, he averaged 47.08 in 394 matches, at a strike rate of 87.71. During this period he didn’t open the batting in 50 matches, and in those games his average fell to 36.70.