We often talk about Sachin-Sehwag, Gilchrist-Hayden and Rohit Sharma-Shikhar Dhawan because they have scored a lot of runs as an opening pair. In any format of cricket, whether it is Test, ODI or T20, the role of openers is very important. If the openers are successful in giving the right start, then a momentum of that team is set and that team can score a mountain of runs. We have seen this happen many times in ODI cricket.
Openers play a big role in the victory of a team. If the opening batsmen are able to give the right start, then the chances of victory for that team increase. If there is a good synergy between the two openers, then they will have no difficulty in scoring runs.
Today, in this article, we discuss about 3 Indian opening pair to have scored the most runs in ODIs.
Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag
Once upon a time, the opening pair of Sachin-Sehwag was famous all over the world. Earlier, Sourav Ganguly used to open with Sachin Tendulkar, but after the arrival of Virender Sehwag, he left the opening and the Sachin-Sehwag pair became famous in ODIs.
One will remember the 2003 World Cup, how the pair of Sachin and Sehwag showed a great game in that tournament. The pair of these two legendary players took the responsibility of opening batting for the Indian team in a total of 93 innings from 2002 to 2012 and during this time scored 3919 runs at an average of 42.13. The highest opening partnership between the two players was 182 runs.
Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan
The opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan have been opening for the Indian team for a long time. These two players have won matches for the Indian team with their partnership on many occasions. The most important thing about this partnership is that one of them is a left-handed batsman and the other is a right-handed batsman.
The opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan have so far opened in a total of 112 ODIs and have scored 5108 runs at an impressive average of 46.43. There have been 18 century and 15 half-century partnerships between the two batsmen so far.
Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly
The pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly is the highest run-scorer not only in India but in the whole world. If we talk about the most successful opening pairs in ODI history, then the names of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly will be taken at the top of that list.
The opening pair of Sachin and Ganguly opened for the Indian team in 136 matches from 1996 to 2007 and during this time both scored a total of 6609 runs at an impressive average of 49.32.
