The most difficult job in cricket is often attributed to the opening batsmen who had to tackle the hard, shiny new ball at the start of the innings; the main task for them is to ensure their team makes a solid beginning to set the platform for an imposing total.

In the long history of Test cricket, a side blessed with two world-class openers has been the dominating force, particularly when it has the luxury of more classy players to follow in the batting order. Two prime examples in the modern era are the West Indies and Australia.

But sadly it has not been the case for Pakistan which has, of late, been found yearning for decent opening starts; the last 100 partnership was registered in Dubai when Mohammad Hafeez and Taufiq Umar put on 114 in the first innings of the series against England in January 2012. In the subsequent 10 Tests, there has been a glaring absence of three-figure stand for the first wicket.

It’s an irony that Taufiq, the left-handed member of this successful partnership, is no longer in the picture and hasn’t played in the last five Tests after returning before the series in South Africa got underway earlier this year.

In 375 Tests since October 1952, Pakistan managed only 46 partnerships for the opening wicket with Taufiq involved in no less than 10 of them. The virtue of batting in a combination does have value. The pair of Taufiq and Hafeez, despite his struggles against the red ball this year, is the surprise ‘top’ for a country that had produced the likes of Hanif Mohammad, Imtiaz Ahmed, Alimuddin, Aamir Sohail, Saeed Anwar, Mohsin Khan, Mudassar Nazar, Majid Khan and Sadiq Mohammad.

Most of the lot were natural openers but some were thrown at the deep end on an experimental basis and became instant success stories, notable among them being Majid and Mohsin who both belonged to the school of artistic batting and were a treat to watch. Who can ever forget the exemplary double ton Mohsin scored on the hallowed turf of Lord’s in 1982 and Majid’s majestic century before lunch against New Zealand in the October heat of Karachi in 1976?

The perennial problems afflicting Pakistan in the Test format are nothing new really. But the impatient mindset has gradually come to the fore in the 21st century; the reason for this probably can be easily attached to the ODI and Twenty20 segments the teams play regularly these days.

Across other regions, openers are persisted with and given an ample run to prove their worth and cement their places in the playing XI. But in Pakistan this is sometimes a rare occurrence that the same two openers have been found playing in Tests. Taufiq and Hafeez can consider themselves fortunate enough to be given opportunities to prove their mettle.

Both of them set a Pakistan record which went almost unnoticed. During the Test against Bangladesh at Chittagong, in Dec 2011, Taufiq and Hafeez opened the innings for the 21st consecutive time, usurping the landmark of Imran Farhat and Salman Butt who were the openers in 18 successive innings Pakistan played from Dec 2009 to Aug 2010. Until the conclusion of the Test against Sri Lanka in Pallekele in July 2012, Hafeez and Taufiq extended their feat to 35 innings. The world mark is 91 set by Australian pair of Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer.

Hafeez has been in 100-plus opening stands on five occasions and, unsurprisingly, Taufiq was his partner in all of them and it is also the best for Pakistan by a particular pair. Aamir Sohail and Saeed Anwar as well Ramiz Raja figured in seven century partnerships apiece. The Aamir-Saeed pairing statistically is the second best for Pakistan with the Mohsin-Mudassar partnership taking the topmost berth with 2,057 runs. But average-wise speaking, the most significant pair was Majid and Sadiq who sauntered 60.47 per each visit to the crease while totalling 1,391 runs.

Among other openers, Imran Farhat was involved in six 100-plus first-wicket partnerships, Majid and Salman five each. The father-son combination of Hanif and Shoaib Mohammad got in the thick of things with four opening stands of 100 or more.

But Pakistan would be far happier if they can unearth openers who could be trusted for a considerable period of time to upgrade their status like other teams have done in the past.

It is appropriate for us to take a look at openers who set high standards during their respective eras and played big roles in making their team the world’s best.

Clive Lloyd gradually attained greatness as captain from 1974-75 until 1984-85 not because of having a constant battery of fearsome fast bowlers to call upon — and generally fielded a quartet of them to blow away the opponents — but also he could depend on the consistency of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes to provide rousing starts at the top of the order.

The legendary Viv Richards, Alvin Kallicharran, Lawrence Rowe, Larry Gomes, Lloyd himself and Jeffrey Dujon cashed in regularly on the foundations set by the Greenidge-Haynes duo which became the most successful combination of openers in Test history, amassing 6,482 (see the table) in 148 innings together in a golden 13-year period during which they were involved in 16 partnerships of 100 or more runs for the first wicket.

Likewise, Australia were the torchbearers from 1995 onwards until 2008 when England and South Africa became serious contenders for the masters of Test cricket. Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer formed a formidable left-handed pair to garner 5,655 — the second highest aggregate thus far — in 113 innings between 2001 and 2007.

Steve Waugh and his predecessor as Australia skipper, Ricky Ponting, were both able to dictate terms to the opposing teams mainly because of Hayden and Langer giving them space to do so. Another combination that merits some mention here also came from Australia in the shape of Mark Taylor, who succeeded Allan Border as captain in 1994, and Michael Slater. The Taylor-Slater partnership ruled the roost for six years from 1993 onwards.

Australia also had a notable opening pair in the 1960s when Bill Lawry and Bob Simpson who were the leaders of the pack (four shy of 3600 runs in 62 innings) until Greenidge and Haynes overhauled their record. But their average of 60.94 is the best for Australia among those exceeding the magical 1,000-run landmark.

No other team can match the powers of the West Indies and Australia in the modern era. India and England threatened for a while before South Africa overtook both of them. But none of these teams had openers of the calibre to emulate the deeds of West Indies and Australia.

Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook became the most successful pair for England in terms of runs from 2006-2012 but their tally of 4,711 in 117 innings (12 100-plus stands) fails to match the remarkable consistency exhibited by compatriots Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe who together averaged almost 88 and shared 15 opening partnerships while plundering 3,249 runs from mere 38 innings in a six-year sequence between the two World Wars (1924-1930).

Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag were the men responsible for making it easy for a classy Indian middle-order that included Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and V.V.S. Laxman. The Gambhir-Sehwag coalition currently has the fifth highest aggregate (4,412 in 87 knocks from 2004 until 2012). Prior to them, the Indian record was held by Chetan Chauhan and the incomparable Sunil Gavaskar, arguably the finest opener, technique-wise, from 1970 onwards.

Sri Lanka may have not been a major force in world cricket despite several notable achievements (World Cup champions in 1996 and Muttiah Muralitharan becoming the only man to claim 800 Test wickets) but their openers Marvan Atapattu and Sanath Jayasuriya were a force to be reckoned with from 1997 to 2007 when they gelled admirably to add together 4,469 runs in 118 innings with a best partnership of 335.

South Africa’s finest partnership at the top was provided by Herschelle Gibbs and Graeme Smith — who has become Test cricket’s most successful captain (50 wins in 102 matches since taking the reins in 2003) — with a respectable 2,983 runs and average bubbling over 56. Gibbs was equally successful with Gary Kirsten in the six years prior to opening with Smith.

John Wright, the former coach of both India and New Zealand, figures twice in the list as New Zealand generally experienced modest success as far as their openers matter. Bruce Edgar, now on the national selection panel, was Wright’s partner in the highest-scoring opening combination.

The writer is a staff member.

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