Top 10 opening partnerships in Test cricket

A good opening partnership is the best foundation for any team in any format of the game. It’s importance gets multiplied when it’s in a 5-day test match. Here’s a list of the Top 10 opening partnerships in Test Cricket. 

1. McKenzie & Graeme Smith – 

The record for the highest opening partnership is presently under the grasps of South Africans, Neil McKenzie and Graeme Smith. They scored it against Bangladesh on 29^th Feb 2008. This happened when McKenzie was then having a dream run after he made a comeback into the South African team.

2. Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy –

This record was previously with 2 Indians named Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy. Their record stood for more than 50 years and was finally broken by Smith and McKenzie.

3. Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid – 

The 3^rd position is with Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid . They scored 410 runs against Pakistan at Lahore and came very close of beating Roy and Mankad’s record but missed it. Rahul Dravid was not a regular opener but being the captain , he took the responsibility of opening for the stability of the team.

4.  Glenn Turner and Jarvis –

New Zealander’s have the fourth position with them ,with Glenn Turner and Jarvis scoring 387 for the 1^st wicket against West Indies in 1972.

5. Bob Simpson and W Lawry –

On the 5^th position is Australia’s Bob Simpson and Lawry, which in 1965 was the second highest opening partnership in Tests.

 

Graeme Smith features twice in the list with his other  opening partnership of 338 with Herschelle Gibbs is placed at 8^th position.

Here is the complete list of highest opening partnerships in tests :

Partners	Runs	Team	Opposition	Ground	Match Date	Match No.
ND McKenzie, GC Smith	415	South Africa	v Bangladesh	Chittagong	29 Feb 2008	1865
MH Mankad, P Roy	414	India	v New Zealand	Chennai	6 Jan 1956	420
V Sehwag, R Dravid	410	India	v Pakistan	Lahore	13 Jan 2006	1781
GM Turner, TW Jarvis	387	New Zealand	v West Indies	Georgetown	6 Apr 1972	696
WM Lawry, RB Simpson	382	Australia	v West Indies	Bridgetown	5 May 1965	589
GC Smith, HH Gibbs	368	South Africa	v Pakistan	Cape Town	2 Jan 2003	1637
L Hutton, C Washbrook	359	England	v South Africa	Johannesburg	27 Dec 1948	307
GC Smith, HH Gibbs	338	South Africa	v England	Birmingham	24 Jul 2003	1651
MS Atapattu, ST Jayasuriya	335	Sri Lanka	v Pakistan	Kandy	28 Jun 2000	1502
GR Marsh, MA Taylor	329	Australia	v England	Nottingham	10 Aug 1989	1125