Data check: Who is the best ODI opener over the last five years?

Since Rohit Sharma’s blistering 147 in the last One Day International against New Zealand, it’s been up for debate who is the best opener in recent history.

Arguably, Sharma’s mid-career renaissance has had a lot to do with him batting lower down the order. Since regularly opening the batting in 2012, he’s scored over 4,000 runs, the third highest among opening batsman in the same period.

Going by runs alone, Hashim Amla and Tilakratne Dilshan are way ahead of Sharma. Dilshan only retired a year ago and is still ahead of the Indian opener, while Amla has left every other batsmen in his wake closing in on 5,000 runs.

However, both Dilshan and Amla have played over a hundred games in this period giving them more of an opportunity to score. Sharma has closed the deficit with perhaps one of the most enviable averages among openers.

He averages over 56 with a strike rate of nearly 91 since 2012. By most measures, Sharma is far ahead of the competition. Amla is at a formidable average of 49.87 with a strike rate a shade under 88.

Sharma is exceptionally aggressive when he gets his eye in. He has hit more sixes than any other opener during this period with 127. His closest competitor is Martin Guptill who has cleared the boundary 104 times since January 2012. Even Warner, a devastating opener in his own right has hit little over half of Sharma’s tally with about 65 sixes.

This fact is particularly noticeable when comparing the top ten run getters over the last five years. All of them seem to prefer getting their runs by scoring boundaries. It’s a safer approach to hit the ball on the ground, but it could be argued that Sharma has played a good chunk of his cricket in the subcontinent, and does have the opportunity to clear shorter boundaries in Indian stadiums.

It’s also important to note where these openers have been playing their cricket. For the majority of his ODI career since 2012, Amla has played away from home. Only one in three matches have been in South Africa, which perhaps tips the balance towards the opener who excels at playing in inhospitable conditions.

Over the same period, Sharma has played majority of his matches in the Indian subcontinent - conditions that are favourable for his batting style. His two highest scores of 209 and 264 have both been in India.

David Warner, the closest contender to Amla and Sharma is almost right down the middle. He’s played a nearly an equal number of matches at home and abroad.

It’s really between Amla and Sharma at the moment. Both will be all-time great ODI openers. The South African’s real gift is his ability to play in almost any condition, which perhaps makes him the safer choice as an opener despite Sharma’s incredible average. But to the Indian opener’s credit, he can take the game away from the first ball and has, arguably, one of the best ODI batting line ups in the world as his supporting cast.