Hunting in pairs is an old cricketing cliché but nothing better describes the role and relationship between two opening batsmen in cricket.
50-overs cricket has been witness to some great opening pairs over the years – Greenidge-Haynes, Hayden-Gilchrist, Tendulkar-Ganguly, Amla-De Kock, Anwar-Sohail, Boon-Marsh, Smith-Gibbs – to name a few.
The current Indian pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma have been prolific over the last few years. They have scored big against the best bowling attacks in different conditions.
But how good are they really? Are they the best contemporary ODI openers in the world? How do they stack against the all-time great combinations?
Let us try and dig deeper.
Appetite for Big Runs
There are only 18 openers in ODI history who have scored 2000 partnership runs for the first wicket.
Dhawan and Sharma have the fifth-highest runs per dismissal (47.48) amongst all opening partnerships in the history of ODI cricket (min. 2000 partnership runs). That places them with a pantheon of greats of one-day cricket. Only Greenidge-Haynes (52.55), Tendulkar-Ganguly (49.32), Gilchrist-Hayden (48.39) and Amla-De Kock (48.38) average more.
This also means that they have scored more runs per dismissal than the combinations of Smith-Gibbs, Tendulkar-Sehwag, Boon-Marsh and Finch-Warner – these are some all-time greats!
But here is an interesting stat - Dhawan and Sharma have the best innings/hundreds ratio in the history of ODI cricket. They have scored 13 hundreds in 82 innings – this shows their appetite to score big runs.
No pair, with the exception of Amla- De Kock, has scored more runs for any wicket than Dhawan-Sharma in the last 5 years (incidentally both are opening pairs). Only two others Kohli-Sharma and Taylor-Williamson, also have notched 10 hundred partnerships in this time-frame.
In terms of aggregate runs, Dhawan and Rohit are seventh on the all-time list with 3846 runs.
In terms of strike rate, Dhawan and Rohit are at number 5 on an all-time India list (min. 1000 runs). They score at 89 runs per hundred balls. No pair has scored faster than Gambhir-Sehwag (107 runs per hundred balls).
This is understandable. Rohit likes to build an innings. He starts steadily while Dhawan gives the initial impetus.
Match-Winners
Among contemporary opening pairs, no one, except Amla-De Kock (61.38) averages more in winning matchesthan Dhawan-Rohit (57.94).
Just for perspective, their winning average is better than Hayden-Gilchrist, Gibbs-Kirsten, Sehwag-Tendulkar and Finch-Warner amongst other great opening pairs.
Now here is another remarkable number. Whenever Dhawan and Rohit have both crossed 40 individually in an ODI innings, India has won 22 of 26 such matches (85%).
India won 18 out of 24 matches (75%) when Tendulkar-Ganguly crossed 40.
The current Indian pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma have been prolific over the last few years. They have scored big against the best bowling attacks in different conditions.
But how good are they really? Are they the best contemporary ODI openers in the world? How do they stack against the all-time great combinations?
Let us try and dig deeper.
Appetite for Big Runs
There are only 18 openers in ODI history who have scored 2000 partnership runs for the first wicket.
Dhawan and Sharma have the fifth-highest runs per dismissal (47.48) amongst all opening partnerships in the history of ODI cricket (min. 2000 partnership runs). That places them with a pantheon of greats of one-day cricket. Only Greenidge-Haynes (52.55), Tendulkar-Ganguly (49.32), Gilchrist-Hayden (48.39) and Amla-De Kock (48.38) average more.
This also means that they have scored more runs per dismissal than the combinations of Smith-Gibbs, Tendulkar-Sehwag, Boon-Marsh and Finch-Warner – these are some all-time greats!
But here is an interesting stat - Dhawan and Sharma have the best innings/hundreds ratio in the history of ODI cricket. They have scored 13 hundreds in 82 innings – this shows their appetite to score big runs.
No pair, with the exception of Amla- De Kock, has scored more runs for any wicket than Dhawan-Sharma in the last 5 years (incidentally both are opening pairs). Only two others Kohli-Sharma and Taylor-Williamson, also have notched 10 hundred partnerships in this time-frame.
In terms of aggregate runs, Dhawan and Rohit are seventh on the all-time list with 3846 runs.
In terms of strike rate, Dhawan and Rohit are at number 5 on an all-time India list (min. 1000 runs). They score at 89 runs per hundred balls. No pair has scored faster than Gambhir-Sehwag (107 runs per hundred balls).
This is understandable. Rohit likes to build an innings. He starts steadily while Dhawan gives the initial impetus.
Match-Winners
Among contemporary opening pairs, no one, except Amla-De Kock (61.38) averages more in winning matchesthan Dhawan-Rohit (57.94).
Just for perspective, their winning average is better than Hayden-Gilchrist, Gibbs-Kirsten, Sehwag-Tendulkar and Finch-Warner amongst other great opening pairs.
Now here is another remarkable number. Whenever Dhawan and Rohit have both crossed 40 individually in an ODI innings, India has won 22 of 26 such matches (85%).
India won 18 out of 24 matches (75%) when Tendulkar-Ganguly crossed 40.