How good were the past opening pairs of India?

It has been a while now that team India has been facing a lot of issues to get settled openers, especially in the longer formats. There was a time when India had a bunch of classic openers in the form of Sunil Gavaskar, Chetan Chauhan, Virender Sehwag and Wasim Jaffer who were capable of performing at any ground of the world. However, the story is far different now as Kohli’s men are unable to find out a best partner for Murali Vijay despite India’s impressive run in the Tests. 

Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir had batted together for the span of 9 years, which gave India some tremendous victories both home and away. The Delhiites started their journey in November 2004 against Australia but got the appreciation against South Africa at Kanpur when they added 218 runs for the first wicket. They did not look back from there onwards and continue their tremendous run against Pakistan in March 2005 with a series of 50+.

The year 2008 was special for the duo as they got 3-century partnerships against Sri Lanka, Australia, and England. Sri Lanka was one of their favourite opponents as they registered their highest-ever 233 runs for the 1st wicket in 2009. Virender Sehwag smashed every bowler before he lost his wicket at 131. On the other hand, Gambhir showed his perfect temperament by scoring 167 runs. They contributed immensely in the later stages with some superb partnerships in Bangladesh and South Africa.

Chetan Chauhan & Sunil Gavaskar

The duo impressed everyone with their excellent run against West Indies, England and Australia in 1979. Sunil Gavaskar’s 221 against England was an unbelievable knock where India just fell short by 9 runs. In this drawn Test, they scored their best opening stand with 213 runs. The heroics continued till 1981 before Chetan Chauhan retired from Test cricket.

Anshuman Gaekwad & Sunil Gavaskar

After Chetan Chauhan, Gavaskar found support in the form of Mumbai’s Anshuman Gaekwad. Though Gaekwad opened the batting with Gavaskar from 1976 (when Chetan Chauhan used to open with Gavaskar), some decent performances came their way after 1981. The best performances of the pair include the partnership of 176 runs against Pakistan and 127 against West Indies in 1983. Overall, both of them did not enjoy the best of the times as an opening pair.

One can say that Gavaskar was not that much lucky with Gaekwad as he was with Chauhan. The pair of Gaekwad and Gavaskar opened in 49 innings and scored 1,722 runs at an average of 36. Anshuman Gaekwad retired from the longer format in 1985.

While one is making every possible effort to make a comeback, the other is in a terrific form right now. In the last 3 years, Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay has provided some good opening stands to their team. They started against Australia in Punjab with a massive 289-run partnership. Dhawan smacked every Aussie bowler for runs and Vijay calmly completed his 150 with a strike rate of 48.