Gibbs's opening dichotomy & Tendulkar in the middle

We're about a month and a half away from the World Cup and India are tinkering with their batting order, trying to find the perfect combination to take to the Caribbean. Sachin Tendulkar, who's not been the opener Indians adored for a while now, has dropped down the order for the series against West Indies. He'd been an automatic entry at the top of the order since that explosive innings at Eden Park in 1994 and in 262 matches, he's amassed 11731 runs at 48.27 against the new ball. In the middle order, however, Tendulkar's been more human, scoring 2837 in 110 matches with only three hundreds, at an average of 32.23. Since 2003, he's batted down the order only six times and whether he fares better this time around remains to be seen.

Sanath Jayasuriya languished in the lower-middle order for most of his first 55 one-day internationals. During this time he averaged a meagre 13.87 with no hundreds and two fifties for his tally of 652 runs. He was asked to open in the home series against Pakistan in 1994 and he cracked three consecutive fifties. Since then he's opened in 311 out of 315 innings and blasted the majority of 10,803 runs at a fearsome pace.

Click here for the full tables.

Kevin Pietersen started out batting at No.5 and knocked up 698 runs at 116.33 in 12 ODI innings at that position. After his initial success, Pietersen moved up one place to No. 4. He's played 18 of his 36 innings to date at No 4, where he averages only 39.88.

For most of his career - 148 matches to be precise - Herschelle Gibbs has opened the batting in one-dayers for South Africa. During this time he's scored 13 hundreds and 19 fifties but averaged only 35.18. It's been nearly two years since Gibbs opened in an ODI and he's been batting a lot more at No.3 and No.4, where his average of 46.11 is a remarkable improvement on his opening stats.

Click here for the full tables.

The reverse is true for Gibbs in Tests. He averages a prolific 49.68 at the top with 5018 runs in 106 innings. He began as a predominantly middle-order batsman and scored only 223 runs in his first seven Tests. He received a promotion to No. 2 during the 1998-99 season and averaged 52.27 in his first two series as opener. Thereafter he opened in every Test he played till January 2005. Since then, however, he's batted between No.3 and No.7 for most of the time and averaged just 27.81.

Click here for the full tables.

Before 2006, Mohammad Yousuf averaged 53 at both No 4 and No 5 though he had batted predominantly at No. 5, where he had scored 12 hundreds. However he batted at No 4 in each of his matches in 2006 and, 1788 runs later, his average at that position has shot up to 76.22. He went back to No 5 for his first Test in 2007 - against South Africa at Port Elizabeth - and made 32 and 18.

Click here for the full tables.

If there's a particular List that you would like to see, e-mail us with your comments and suggestions.