5 openers who became better ODI players upon moving to the middle-order ft. Shai Hope

There have been plenty of tales about middle-order batters moving to the top of the order and finding a new lease of life. Be it Chris Gayle, Sanath Jayasuriya, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar or Rohit Sharma, some of the best openers we have seen in ODI cricket over the years started their life as middle-order batters.

However, there are very few players who have gone the other way - from opening the innings to playing in the middle order. To be true, it takes a lot of adjustments both ways.

Conventional wisdom suggests that since openers are used to playing against the new ball. This is because they might find it easier to adjust to the middle-order when the ball is older, but practically, this is not the case.

The openers are used to playing against and using the pace of the ball but when they come lower down the order, they have to be more careful with their shot selection and footwork.

The pitch plays differently and asks difficult questions about their technique. The West Indies skipper Shai Hope, who scored an 83-ball unbeaten 109 to chase down England's total in the first ODI on Sunday, showcased that to the full.

In this listicle, we bring five such openers who became better ODI players upon moving to the middle order.

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#1 Shai Hope

West Indies skipper Shai Hope is one of the leading examples of players who have become better ODI players after moving down to the middle-order.

Hope is one of the most technically solid batters the West Indies have produced in recent times. His ability to play long knocks without losing concentration marks him so differently from his colleagues.

Hope can rotate the strike at will and also score the odd boundary from loose deliveries. He has held the Windies batting together in recent years after the Caribbean's explicit interest in T20 cricket diminished their long-form batting.

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#2 KL Rahul

KL Rahul in action in the World Cup.

India's KL Rahul is another player who has improved his ODI game significantly by moving down to the middle-order. A lot of it is due to the increased competition for openers in the Indian side at the moment, and Rahul has taken his chances rather well.

The Karnataka batter, who opened for vast periods of his early career, moved down and found a different gear. In the recently concluded World Cup as well, Rahul held the Indian innings together when early wickets fell and when it was asked of him to contribute later on in the innings.

He has adapted and improved himself extremely well in this format of the game.

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#3 Tom Latham

Tom Latham in action in the World Cup.

New Zealand's Tom Latham, who still opens for them in Test cricket, has unlocked a different version of himself by playing in the middle order in ODIs.

In the recently concluded World Cup, where the Kiwis lost in the semi-finals to India, he was compact in the middle order. When skipper Kane Williamson was not able to take to the field owing to the knee and thumb injuries he suffered, Latham led the side, and his newfound confidence in his batting was visible.

Also a wicketkeeper, Latham is one of the prime examples of players who benefitted strongly by moving down the order. Truth be told, the elegant southpaw has found his moorings at No.5 in ODIs.

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#4 AB de Villiers

AB de Villiers.

One of the biggest names on this list is AB de Villiers. The South African, who made his Test debut as an opener, moved down the order later on in his career and the rest, as we know, is history.

De Villiers is known today as the pioneer of exploiting fieldsets in limited-overs cricket, but that happened only after he came down the order.

In 2004 and 2005, South Africa's selectors pulled a cat out of the bag when they asked him to move down the order and keep wicket rather early on in his career.

The Pretoria man batted in every position from 1 to 8 for South Africa and this exposure is what eventually shaped him to become one of the greatest cricketers of all time.

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#5 VVS Laxman

Former India cricketer VVS Laxman.

Former India and Hyderabad batter VVS Laxman, who first burst into the international scene as an opener, made the No.5 spot his own in Test cricket as the years rolled by.

Although Laxman is among those very few cricketers who have 100 Tests to their name but have not played a single game in an ODI World Cup, he did rather well for India in limited-overs cricket too.

Although he only played in 86 ODIs, Laxman averaged a respectable 30 and amassed 2338 runs. He scored six centuries and four half-centuries in this format of the game as well.