How Gambhir-Sehwag match up against great pairs

Gautam Gambhir's recent remark "We still average 53 as an opening pair, which I think is one of the best when it comes to opening the batting in world cricket," is not far from truth.  Gambhir and Virender Sehwag's partnership average of 52.69 is not only the fifth highest in Test cricket history among openers involved in 50 or more innings, but also the best among contemporary opening pairs.  The next best are Englishmen Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss, who average just 40.96 runs per innings. Therefore, Gambhir was rightly indignant because the pair's current form was questioned.

Moreover, their partnership aggregate of 4110 runs is the fifth highest among all Test openers and among current openers, only Cook and Stauss better their aggregate by 611 runs.  Table 1 lists the top openers in Test cricket history with partnership averages of 50-plus after playing together in at least 50 innings.  Bill Lawry and Bob Simpson, the Australian openers, take the top position with an average of 60.94, followed by Len Hutton and Cyril Washbrook, the English duo, with 60.00. Hershelle Gibbs and Graeme Smith of South Africa and Chetan Chauhan and Sunil Gavaskar lie ahead of Gambhir and Sehwag. Table 2 has openers with the highest partnership aggregates in Test cricket history. Here, Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, the West Indians, are on top of the elite list with 6482 runs.

Table 1

Test openers with best partnership averages

(Qualification: 50 or more innings as openers)

 

Table 2

Test openers with highest partnership aggregates

 

The Gambhir-Sehwag combination is the best among Test openers in contemporary cricket in home conditions. They average a high 60.59 in India. Only two other pairs in Test history, Greenidge and Haynes (65.44) and Mike Atherton and Graham Gooch (63.66) of England, have better averages while opening at home. The Indian pair's seven 100-plus stands at home are only bettered by Greenidge-Haynes (10), Jack Hobbs-Herbert Sutcliffe of England (9) and Matthew Hayden-Justin Langer of Australia (9). Tables 3 to 6 have details of how Test openers have fared both in aggregates and averages at home and away.

Table 3

Test openers with best partnership averages at home

(Qualification: 25 or more innings as openers)

 

Table 4

Test openers with highest partnership aggregates at home

 

Table 5

Test openers with best partnership averages overseas

(Qualification: 25 or more innings as openers)

 

Table 6

Test openers with highest partnership aggregates overseas

(Qualification: 25 or more innings as openers)

 

The table below charts how the partnership of Gambhir and Sehwag has performed as openers during each calendar year since they opened together for the first time against Australia at Mumbai on November 3, 2004. It wasn't an auspicious start as the pair had a dismal time while putting on 11 and 5 respectively. However, the bright side was that India won the match by 13 runs. Their best period came from 2008 to 2010, when they put on 2503 runs in 42 innings while averaging 62.57, with 8 100-plus stands (interestingly, during the same period Sehwag and Murali Vijay had aggregated 798 runs, averaging 79.80, with three 100-plus stands).

Table 7

The Gambhir-Sehwag performance as an opening pair in each calendar year/home-away/result wise