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Many things will end at The Oval this week. One of those will be the opening partnership of Chris Rogers and David Warner.
Opening batting partnerships are different to other batting combinations. Having a stable and productive opening pair goes a long way to a successful innings.
Great opening partnerships are referred to in cricket history in a similar way to great players – combinations such as Bob Simpson and Bill Lawry, Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, and Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden.
With a Test to go, Rogers and Warner have accumulated 1943 runs at an average of 49.8 over 40 innings. They passed the 100 mark eight times, with an excellent conversion rate once they made a start.
Since coming together in 2013, they have been the most prolific opening combination in world cricket. This is largely due to their stability, having almost double the amount of innings as any other regular pairings.
The retirements of Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen and the inability of England and New Zealand to find a regular opening pairing has contributed greatly to an era of changing combinations at the top of the order.
In Australian history, for partnerships with 10 innings or more, Rogers and Warner rank tenth for average runs per innings. That is a significant achievement given the amount of openers over more than 130 years of Test cricket.
Surprisingly, they have only the fourth highest average for Australian all left handed duos after Hayden and Phil Jaques, Phil Hughes and Simon Katich and Hayden and Langer.
It is notable that Rogers and Warner have a four-run better average away from Australia and have at least one 100 run partnership in every series they have played.
One of their strongest attributes has been their performance in Australia’s losing causes. Four of their eight century partnerships have come during a defeat. They have only a slightly lower average in Test losses, which is unusual – and in this circumstance they contribute a much larger proportion of the side’s total.
In a loss, the Rogers-Warner partnership contributes on average 20 per cent of the team total and in the fourth innings of a match, this jumps to a huge 28 per cent. The Australia middle order has not been able to capitalise on these good starts and collapsed, as has been on display recently at Trent Bridge but also at Port Elizabeth in 2014 and Durham in 2013.
There are few omissions in their resume but it would be a disappointment that they were never able to chase down a total on their own and that they never both scored 100 in a partnership. The closest they got was in Sydney 2015 during their career high of 200.
A Test series in India would have also provided a more rounded synopsis of their all-time standing.
Rogers and Warner have clearly different styles and ethos when it comes to batting but like a well made sweet and sour dish, it works as a combination. Rogers’ vast first-class experience allows him to a subtlety influence the partnership through changes in tempo and rotating the strike.
Australian cricket may attempt to replace Rogers with someone who bats in a similar mould, but it is the guile and experience which will be hard to find. Ed Cowan bats in a somewhat similar way to Rogers, but the Cowan-Warner partnership averaged five runs less per innings than this current pairing.
It is doubtful that Rogers and Warner will be referred to a great deal in history but in an inconsistent period of Australian cricket they have provided a relatively consistent and productive start to an innings. Their best was often in vain and somewhat forgotten as it came when Australia was behind and ultimately defeated.
However, when the sun sets, this actually adds to their legacy. In the immediate future which now faces Australian cricket, the value of Rogers and Warner will likely rise beyond their pure statistics.
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