In any Test team there are players who need to work well in combination. The bowlers need to work together to take wickets and apply pressure. Warne and McGrath. Wasim and Waqar.
Batting partnerships are important too with the opening partnership the most critical of all.
The job of the openers is twofold. To see off the new ball and build a solid foundation for the rest of the innings. But in order to do this they both have to stay around for a long time and score a few runs as well.
If one of the openers gets out quickly or cheaply then the opening partnership has failed to do its job. Even if one scores a hundred, the partnership has failed if the other gets out cheaply or gets out in the first hour.
So the success of an opener is measured not only by his own scores, but also the scores of his partner.
There have been many great opening partnerships in Test cricket. Greenidge/Haynes, Gavaskar/Chauhan, Hayden/Langer. Importantly, their teams have had great success when they have had great opening partnerships.
Australia’s current openers are Warner (18 innings avg. 44 with three centuries and one half century) and Cowan (14 innings avg. 38 with 1 century and 3 half centuries). Not bad stats from either player, but let’s look at their partnerships.
Vs India: 1/46, 1/13, 1/8, 1/214, 1/26, 1/39
Vs West Indies: 1/50, 1/31, 1/53, 1/26, 1/1, 1/17
Vs South Africa: 1/13, 1/43
The average opening partnership for Warner/Cowan is 41 from 14 innings with one hundred partnership and two fifty partnerships. Take out that 214 in Perth and their average is 28.
Compare this with the other pairs I mentioned above:
Greenidge/Haynes: 148 innings, avg. 46 with 16 hundred partnerships and 26 fifties
Gavaskar/Chauhan: 60, 53 with 11 and 10
Hayden/Langer: 122, 51, 14 and 28
Another interesting comparison is with the similar style of players in Sehwag/Gambhir with 82 inn, avg 53, 11 hundreds, 24 fifties.
Warner and Cowan are a new opening partnership and have a long way to go to prove themselves both individually and as a pairing. It is not a stretch to say the aim of the Australian team to return to no.1 also depends on their success.
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