The Indian team is one of the most successful team in the world of cricket, they won the World Cup a decade after entering to international ODIs. Apart from this, the Indian team won the Champions Trophy in 2013 and won another World Cup in 2011.
There have been and is many cricketers who played a pivotal role India’s success story. Once the Indian team has also been joint winner with Sri Lankan team in the Champions Trophy some years back. Great players leave no stone unturned to take their team forward but they need to get big opportunities at the right time.
There have been many legendary players in the Indian team who started batting in the lower or middle order after coming to international cricket but later became a swashbuckling opener. Such players took advantage of the opportunities and made it their own place and joined the list of great players.
In this article today, we take a look at the 3 popular Indian players who were a flop as lower-order batsman but turned into a legend as opener.
Sachin Tendulkar
Veteran Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar made his debut in 1989 against Pakistan in Gujranwala. In that match, Sachin was sent to bat at fifth position in the lineup. Tendulkar could not do much in that match and returned to the pavilion on the score of zero runs.
After that, after playing in the middle order for more than four years in his career, Tendulkar played a match against New Zealand for the Indian team as an opener. In that match, he scored 82 runs in 49 balls and later became one of the greatest player of the game.
Virender Sehwag
Indian explosive batsman Virender Sehwag was earlier known more as a bowler and a slog-hitter who would smash the bowlers in the last overs. Virender Sehwag played his first ODI against Pakistan in 1999. In that match, he was sent to bat at number seven. Sehwag scored only 1 run of 2 balls and was dismissed by Shoaib Akhtar.
After playing lower down the order in his first 11 matches, he got a chance to play as an opener against New Zealand in his twelfth match. After that, everyone knows what he has achieved in his career and is regarded as one of the greatest of the opener.
Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma’s debut match was against Ireland in 2007 but he didn’t had the opportunity to bat. It was a tri-series and the next match was against South Africa. In that match, Rohit Sharma batted down the order at number seven and scored 8 runs. After that, he played in the lower order for a few years. Dhoni got him to open the inning during tour of South Africa in 2011. After not getting much success there, he also got him to open against England in the home series and this time Rohit Sharma was a success.
He scored 580 runs in 16 innings as an opener that year, and now today, everyone knowns what Rohit Sharma is and where he is in his career today. Rohit is regarded as one of the best opening batsman of this generation and is almost untouchable in the team. He is now India’s captain in all 3 formats of the game.