Hafeez, Taufeeq break new ground for Pakistan

When Mohammad Hafeez and Taufeeq Umar walked out to bat in the Chittagong Test, they were opening the innings for Pakistan for the 21st consecutive time. It would have been an unremarkable number had it not been for the fact that no other pair had opened in more successive innings for Pakistan. Not even Saeed Anwar and Aamer Sohail. Hafeez and Taufeeq celebrated the occasion with a 164-run partnership.

This week's column is about teams with unchanged openers for the most consecutive innings, as well as teams that used the most openers in a year.

Hafeez and Taufeeq's 21-innings stretch, and those of most other openers, pales in comparison to the 91 consecutive times that Australia opened with Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer. The next best is 43, between England's Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook. Hayden and Langer began their partnership at The Oval in August 2001. They added 158, and Langer, who replaced Michael Slater at the top of Australia's order, went on to make 102 before retiring hurt. Hayden and Langer added 224 in Australia's next innings - against New Zealand at the Gabba in November. In the second innings of that match, Australia, chasing quick runs for a competitive declaration, sent Adam Gilchrist to open with Hayden. It was the last time they opened without Hayden and Langer until November 2005, when Langer suffered a broken rib and gave Michael Hussey, a veteran with 15,313 first-class runs, the opportunity to make his Test debut against West Indies. After that stretch of 91 consecutive innings, the second longest Langer and Hayden had was nine, during the 2006-07 Ashes.

England's present opening combination of Strauss and Cook came closest to challenging the Hayden-Langer mark. They opened in 23 consecutive innings between November 2006 and August 2007 before Strauss was dropped for the tour of Sri Lanka and then recalled to No. 3 for the tour of New Zealand in 2007-08. Strauss was back to opening with Cook for the home series against New Zealand in 2008 and that was the start of their 43-innings stretch. It ended only because Strauss chose to rest from the tour of Bangladesh in 2010. Strauss returned for the home series against Bangladesh that followed and has since opened with Cook in 27 consecutive innings.

Of the major Test sides (Zimbabwe excluded), which team's longest streak by the same pair of openers is the smallest? It isn't Bangladesh - Imrul Kayes and Tamim Iqbal opened 32 times in a row (seventh highest) before Kayes was dropped for the Chittagong Test against Pakistan. It is New Zealand. The 16 consecutive innings that Bruce Edgar and John Wright opened in between November 1980 and March 1982 form their longest stretch. Darrin Murray and Bryan Young matched it in 1994-95.

While England now have a stable opening combination, they once set benchmarks in using the most openers in a year. Most of those years, however, were pre-war, and the last year in which England used nine openers was 1963.

Australia were the only other team to use nine openers in a year - in 1977 and 1979, both Packer years. In 1977, four of the openers Australia used - Ian Davis, Rick McCosker, Kerry O'Keeffe and Richie Robinson - signed up for World Series Cricket, necessitating the use of more. O'Keeffe, a legspinner, opened only once in his career - in the second innings of the Centenary Test, after McCosker had his jaw broken by Bob Willis.

The most consecutive innings by openers in ODIs is 42, by Australia's Mark Waugh and Gilchrist between April 1998 and October 1999, a period that included a World Cup victory. They beat the 40 consecutive innings that their predecessors David Boon and Geoff Marsh strung together between April 1987 and October 1989 - which too, coincidentally, included World Cup success.

The record for most opening partnerships belongs to Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, who opened for India in 176 ODIs. The most they managed in a row, though, was only 17, between March and October 2000.

By coincidence, the most openers used by a team in ODIs in a year is the same as in Tests - 11. Pakistan used 11 in 2002, Zimbabwe in 2003 and Bangladesh in 2004. Bangladesh, however, used 11 in only 19 games, while Pakistan used 11 in 38. Zimbabwe's 11 openers in 2003 were spread across 21 matches.

Thank you to Mazher Arshad for bringing the Hafeez-Taufeeq statistic to our attention.