Opening the batting in cricket is considered one of the most tedious tasks. In a day and age where the batters make merry the new ball bowlers still hold the sway. The openers need to play a key role in the Test format.
When we speak about modern-day openers the likes of Martin Guptill, Rohit Sharma, and David Warner come to mind. The three batters have taken many bowlers to the cleaners with their blazing strokeplay.
Some of the underrated openers though don’t get many mentions. These batters may have either played very little international cricket or their performances have been overlooked. This makes such players underrated stars of the game.
Here are the top 3 most underrated openers of the current era
3- Paul Stirling – Ireland
The Ireland opening batter doesn’t get counted as one of the modern-day greats. With over 5000 runs in ODI cricket and 3000 runs and counting in T20 cricket, Paul Stirling is a very dangerous batter. The right-handed batter can hit the ball with ease and makes batting look easy when in full flow. Paul Stirling with his score of 177 in ODI cricket has proved that he has a penchant to score big runs on the board and hurt the bowlers.
2- Evin Lewis – West Indies
At the fag end of Chris Gayle’s career there were already talks of Evin Lewis becoming the ideal replacement. The left-handed batter has it all, he can play well against the pace bowlers as well as use his feet well against the spin bowlers. His score of 170 plus during an ODI showed why he was considered the next big thing in West Indies cricket. Evin Lewis also has a couple of centuries in the T20I format but sadly due to lack of form has fizzled out of international cricket.
1- Alex Hales – England
The former England opener was one of the key players under Eoin Morgan after the 2015 ODI World Cup. The tall batter was one of the key stars to bring the revival of English cricket in the white ball format. His knock in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup in 2022 paved the way for his side to win the title for the second time. Sadly his international career ended soon after as he continues to play franchise cricket.