Highest Opening Partnership In Test Cricket

Rishikesh Sharma | 14/07/2023
Highest Opening Partnership In Test Cricket

Former South African duo of Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie hold the record for the highest opening partnership in Test cricket. They achieved this feat against Bangladesh on a flat track in Chattogram 15 years ago. Barring exceptions in the recent years, subcontinent pitches are considered to be the best for batting but six out of the 10 best Test opening partnerships have come outside of Asia.

Smith has been one hell of an opener and his name appears thrice in the below mentioned list. Apart from McKenzie, he was part of a couple of huge partnerships with his fellow opener Herschelle Gibbs as well. Other than three South African stands among the Top 10, two are from India, and one each from Australia, New Zealand, England, West Indies and Sri Lanka.

The new West Indies opening duo of Kraigg Brathwaite and Tagenarine Chanderpaul added 336 runs for the first wicket against Zimbabwe earlier this year. This is the most recent addition to the list. The pitches have gotten tougher for batting in Tests lately and the result is visible in the table as well.

Indian duo of Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal added 229 runs for the first wicket in the ongoing first Test against West Indies. Not a record-breaking partnership at the highest level, it comes at the seventh position in the list of highest 1st wicket partnerships among Indian batters. That said, this was the highest partnership at Windsor Park, Roseau, Dominica.

Highest Opening Partnership In Test Cricket

S No. Batters Runs Team Opposition Venue Year
1 Neil McKenzie & Graeme Smith 415 South Africa Bangladesh Chattogram 2008
2 Vinoo Mankad & Pankaj Roy 413 India New Zealand Chennai 1956
3 Virender Sehwag & Rahul Dravid 410 India Pakistan Lahore 2006
4 Glenn Turner & Terry Jervis 387 New Zealand West Indies Georgetown 1972
5 Bill Lawey & Bob Simpson 382 Australia West Indies Bridgetown 1965
6 Graeme Smith & Herschelle Gibbs 368 South Africa Pakistan Cape Town 2003
7 Len Hutton & Cyril Washbrook 359 England South Africa Johannesburg 1948
8 Graeme Smith & Herschelle Gibbs 338 South Africa England Birmingham 2003
9 Kraigg Brathwaite and Tagenarine Chanderpaul 336 West Indies Zimbabwe Bulawayo 2023
10 Marvan Atapattu & Sanath Jayasuriya 335 Sri Lanka Pakistan Kandy 2000

India Best Opening Partnership In Test Cricket

S No. Batters Runs Team Opposition Venue Year
1 Vinoo Mankad & Pankaj Roy 413 India New Zealand Chennai 1956
2 Virender Sehwag & Rahul Dravid 410 India Pakistan Lahore 2006
3 Rohit Sharma & Mayank Agarwal 317 India South Africa Visakhapatnam 2019
4 Murali Vijay & Shikhar Dhawan 289 India Australia Mohali 2013
5 Murali Vijay & Shikhar Dhawan 283 India Bangladesh Fatullah 2015
6 Virender Sehwag & Gautam Gambhir 233 India Sri Lanka Kanpur 2009
7 Rohit Sharma & Yashasvi Jaiswal 229 India West Indies Dominica 2023
8 Murali Vijay & Virender Sehwag 221 India Sri Lanka Mumbai (Brabourne) 2009
9 Virender Sehwag & Gautam Gambhir 218 India South Africa Kanpur 2004
10 Sunil Gavaskar & Chetan Chauhan 213 India England London (The Oval) 1979
Post Edited By: Dixit Bhargav
Rohit Sharma Yashasvi Jaiswal

About the author

Rishikesh Sharma

An engineering graduate and an ardent sports fan, Rishikesh Sharma is covering cricket for three years now after not making peace with a corporate life and has written more than 5000 articles. While Sourav Ganguly made him fall in love with the sport, Brendon McCullum and Gautam Gambhir enhanced it. Apart from cricket, Rishikesh is a huge fan of Liverpool FC. When not watching sports, you will find him riding around Jaipur.

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