Top 5 Indian Test opening pairs of all time
The longest format has seen several prolific opening pairs since the inception of the format.
The West Indies greats Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes have most runs as an opening combination in the history of Test cricket. Next comes the modern Australian duo of Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer, whose stands at the top were so crucial in their country dominating world cricket throughout the early twenty-first century, much like Greenidge and Haynes helped the West Indies do the same forty years ago.
But Sportskeeda traces the five most successful Indian opening pairs in five-day cricket, with the name of a legend, featuring in three of them.
#5 Sunil Gavaskar and Krishnamachari Srikkanth (1981-1987)
1,469 runs in 34 innings
Average – 43.21, 100s – 3 and 50s – 9
Highest – 200
Sunil Gavaskar, the first man to score 10,000 Test runs, and Krishnamachari Srikkanth, the attacking opener of yesteryears, formed one of the most potent opening pairs during their days. In the 34 innings that they opened together, they strung three century partnerships and nine half-century stands.
Having hit as many as 1,469 runs together, their highest while batting together was exactly 200, having opened for India for six years from 1981 onwards, including the 1983 World Cup, where the then underdogs India knocked over the giants West Indies in the final.