Mahela Jayawardene has urged Sri Lanka’s national selectors to let him open the innings in one-day cricket for the final phase of his international career. Jayawardene said he had been “pushing for the move since the 2011 World Cup.”, ESPN info reported.

“The only thing I haven’t done is gone down on my knees to the selectors and asked for me to be allowed to open,” Jayawardene joked. “I have felt that’s the position I should bat leading up to this World Cup. The selectors obviously have a different theory. Because the middle order isn’t experienced, they wanted me to be there. But every time I have opened the batting, I have played my best cricket, been consistent and controlled the game. So we’ll see. We still have three to four months before the World Cup.”

Over his 16-year international career, Jayawardene has opened in just 32 of his 426 ODIs despite posting some impressive numbers in that position. He averages 44.76 as an ODI opener with four centuries and seven fifties at a strike rate of 91.48.

“Every time an opener gets sick or has an injury, I am the first one to put my hand up and that’s how I got my opportunities,” he said. “In T20 cricket I’ve opened and that frees me up quite a bit and gives me that opportunity to start well and control the innings.”

Jayawardene’s plea for a promotion up the order is unlikely to be accepted immediately, especially after he made an attractive 118 in 124 balls in the third ODI at Hyderabad batting at No.4. Jayawardene came into bat with Sri Lanka placed precariously at 7 for 2, and guided the innings with a typically cultured knock that included 12 fours and a six.