Opening pairs with 5000+ partnership runs in ODIs
There have been many individual cricketers who have notched up plenty of runs while batting, but there are only a few who constantly did it in pairs. Every team wishes their openers to stay strong on the crease and build up the innings to provide assistance to the middle-order batters. In the international arena, there have been four pairs of cricketers who have notched up total runs in excess of 5000, thereby emerging as one of the finest opening pairs in cricket.
Let us have a look at the only four such opening pairs with 5000+ partnership runs in ODIs:
Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan- 5108* runs
The Indian duo is probably one of the finest opening pairs in the current era. Sharma and Dhawan keep going as they surpassed the 5000-run mark when they rejoined each other in the top order after a brief break and notched up an unbeaten century stand against England to enter the elite club.
Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenridge- 5,150 runs
During the earlier days of cricket, in the 1970s and 1980s, West Indies dominated the world of cricket. While many remember Sir Vivian Richards and former skipper Clive Lloyd as the best players, Haynes and Greenridge, who shared 5150 runs, were the backbones of the team as they were the ones who used to take the side to a big start in order to bag a win.
Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden- 5,372 runs
Gilchrist and Hyden were one of the most successful opening pairs in the history of Australian cricket in the 50-over format. They hold a total of 16 century stands to their name and have notched up 5372 runs while opening the innings for their side. The duo was one of the key reasons behind Australia’s world cup win in 2003 and 2007.
Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly- 6,609 runs
The greatest opening pair that the world of cricket has ever witnessed is that of the right-handed Mumbai maestro Sachin Tendulkar and the left-handed King of Bengal Sourav Ganguly. The duo formed the most successful association in the 50-over format. They share a total of 8227 runs between themselves while batting together, of which 6609 came while batting as opener.
