Top 5 averages among current openers in ODIs

#4 Quinton de Kock, 46.04

2nd Momentum ODI: South Africa v Bangladesh

De Kock was thrown to the wolves early. Always touted for a bright future, he was handed an ODI cap at age 20 but found the going tough. He passed forty only once in his first 13 knocks and then he ran into India.

Rest is history.

With three centuries in three consecutive innings against the men in blue, de Kock became a South African mainstay in the ODI arena, his destructive batting and nimble wicket-keeping drawing comparisons with the legendary Adam Gilchrist. He also became the joint fastest to 1000 ODI runs.

However, his peak moment came at Centurion in 2016, when he raced to 178 off just 111 balls, a reminiscent of Herschelle Gibbs's similar score a decade back, and helped his team gun down 294 against Australia in just 36.2 overs. Had they 434 to pursue that day, they would've strolled past it without breaking a sweat, such was the ferocity of de Kock that day.

What stands out about him is his conversion rate, 46.4% of his 28 fifty-plus scores have been extended all the way to three figures.

Stats as an opener:

Innings: 87, Runs: 3776, 100s: 13, SR: 94.47