5 most successful opening batsmen for India in ODIs

Virender Sehwag

Viru was a nightmare for all fast bowlers.

Undoubtedly the most destructive opening batsman of all time, Virender Sehwag was a constant presence at the top of the Indian batting order for a large part of the last 15 years. He formed formidable opening partnerships with Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and Gautam Gambhir over his career.

'The Nawab of Najafgarh' was capable of smashing the bowlers right from the word go, something that he did in almost every single match of his international career. He just played with one philosophy - Watch the ball and just hit it out of the ground.

In his 245 ODI innings, Viru opened the batting for the Indian team 212 times, scoring 7518 runs at an average of 36.50. However, it was his majestic strike rate of 104.71 that was the icing on the cake of his ODI career.

14 out of his 15 ODI hundreds were scored from this opening slot, including his career best score of 219.