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The exuberant One-Day International format of the game has seen from the longest possible time dominant batters who have made plenty of runs with fluent scores and vibrant averages.
In the yesteryears, some of the most inspiring names in the format remained Sir Viv Richards and Allan Border along with Sachin Tendulkar who’d come along in the mid eighties but in the years, cricket adorned massively successful names in the fifty over format who graced the game with a tonnage of runs alongside mighty fine batting averages.
Let’s find out the batters with top 5 batting averages with a minimum of 20 ODI innings to their name:
Ryan Ten Doeschate
Widely considered one of the most respected and hugely talented cricketers ever produced by an Associate Nation, Doeschate played a few internationals for The Netherlands for whom he featured in 33 one day contests (along with 24 T20Is), from which he made 1541 runs at a strikingly good average of 67. Even to this day, it’s a world record for a batter with the highest average in this format.
That stat means a batter with minimum 20 innings to his name!
Shubman Gill
Currently with a batting average of 59, second most for any batter with a minimum of 20 ODI innings to his name, the young and classy right hander from Punjab, India is a force to reckon with. Gill has already scored a fighting double century in 50-over cricket where he’s already made 2,775 runs.
Virat Kohli
Not called King Kohli for nothing, greatness has, for the longest possible time, been the right hander’s middle name.
No other batter other than the Delhi born legendary cricketer has hit 51 centuries in the ODI format, where he has a batting average of 57.8. But you instantly realise the importance of this incredible figure when you consider the fact that Kohli has this mammoth average despite featuring in 302 ODI games, as of May 30, 2025. What consistency. What greatness!
Dawid Malan
He may no longer be featuring in the white ball set of the English cricket team but for quite some time, Malan entertained and inspired awe, thanks to his ebullient and courageous batting. From the onset of 2019-23, Malan, a brave left hander scored 1450 runs for England in ODI’s at a staggering average of 55.7.
Babar Azam
Widely recognised as the finest modern day batter for the Pakistan team especially in the white ball set up, Babar has commanded worldwide headlines for his elegant and consistent strokeplay and run making.
He currently stands fifth for batsmen with the highest ODI average; his being 55.1 from 131 games from the onset of 2015, having already made 6,200 plus runs.
