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Former Indian cricketer turned commentator Aakash Chopra has created a stir on social media with his latest ODI ranking. During a blind ranking challenge by CREX, Chopra chose his top eight Indian ODI openers of all time, which included legends like Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag.
Chopra had to rank each player as his name was called without knowing which cricketer would come next in the blind ranking. Nevertheless, his ranking has already become a hot topic online.
Sachin Tendulkar is at number 1 in Aakash Chopra’s blind ranking
Aakash Chopra had no doubts about the No. 1 spot, putting the great Sachin Tendulkar at the top of his list. The former Indian captain is one of the all-time great batsmen of this format.
Tendulkar is the all-time leading run-scorer in ODI cricket with 18,426 runs in 452 ODI innings with the help of 49 centuries and 96 half-centuries. The Mast Blaster’s highest score in this format was 200 not out. Many big records are still in Tendulkar’s name.
Rohit Sharma is second in the list following his incredible record as an ODI opener, but Chopra still feels that Tendulkar remains the greatest Indian opener in the format. Rohit has so far scored 10866 runs in 257 innings, with the highest score being 264. The former Indian captain has already scored 31 centuries and 57 fifties in the format.
Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir will form the middle order.
Legendary captain and batsman Sourav Ganguly was ranked third for his iconic partnership with Sachin, while Virender Sehwag was ranked fourth for revolutionizing ODI batting with his fearless approach. Gautam Gambhir is at fifth position, followed by Shikhar Dhawan at sixth position.
While Ganguly ended his ODI career with 11363 runs in 300 innings, including 22 centuries and 72 fifties, Sehwag has 8273 runs in 245 innings in this format. He also scored 15 centuries and 38 half-centuries in ODIs. Gambhir, who currently serves as the Indian head coach, has 5238 runs to his name while Dhawan finished his career with 6793 runs in ODI cricket.
Interestingly, Chopra admitted that the blind rankings worked against Dhawan. He believed that the former Indian left-hander should be ranked at No. 4 or No. 5, but those positions had already been filled before Dhawan’s name came up, leaving him with no option but to place him at sixth.
The last two spots went to Kris Srikkanth and Navjot Singh Sidhu, thus completing Chopra’s top eight list. Srikkanth was part of India’s historic 1983 World Cup-winning team and later served as the chief selector. He finished his career with over 4000 ODI runs.
Sidhu, on the other hand, has now become one of the most loved commentators and has also tried his hand in politics. He scored over 4400 runs for India in the 50 over format.
Aakash Chopra’s Top 8 Indian ODI Openers:
- Sachin Tendulkar
- Rohit Sharma
- Sourav Ganguly
- Virender Sehwag
- Gautam Gambhir
- Shikhar Dhawan
- chris srikanth
- Navjot Singh Sidhu
