Why it pays to open in Sri Lanka

Usually the prospect of facing up to the new ball, and a pair of fresh bowlers, isn't an inviting thought, but when in Sri Lanka, that might be the best option for batsmen to score runs. In India's first three innings on their current tour, the openers have clearly had the best time, while the rest have largely struggled. Gautam Gambhir made significant contributions in both innings in the first Test, while he and Virender Sehwag amassed 167 for the opening wicket in Galle before the middle order crumbled again. With Muttiah Muralitharan in the bowling attack on pitches which invariably assist spinners, putting together partnerships against the older ball and with fielders around the bat has mostly been a daunting prospect for even the top batsmen.

The table below lists partnerships for the opening wicket, and for the rest of the order, for overseas teams in each country. Bangladesh is a huge favourite with overseas opening batsmen, thanks largely to the home team's innocuous new-ball attack, and so is Zimbabwe - in both countries opposition openers average more than 50 for the opening wicket. In India, too, opening partnerships are much more profitable than those down the order, but the numbers for Sri Lanka show just how difficult it is for opposition batsmen down the order in that country: their average stand of 24.35 is easily the lowest among all countries.

Gambhir and Sehwag have done a fine job in the series so far, and the story was similar on India's previous tour to Sri Lanka, in 2001, when SS Das and Sadagoppan Ramesh, the openers, consistently got the team off to fine starts, only for the rest of the line-up to botch it up. In India's previous match at Galle, Das and Ramesh added 79 for the first wicket, but the team was bundled out for 187. In the third Test, opening partnerships of 97 and 107 yielded innings totals of 234 and 299.

England pairs dominate the rest of the list: during each of their three tours to Sri Lanka in this decade, England's openers have played their part well, averaging more than 40 per stand each time. England, though, ended up losing two of those three series. (For a list of openers who have scored the most runs in Sri Lanka during this period, click here.)

Brian Lara had enormous success against the Sri Lankan spinners, especially Muralitharan, in 2001, and it's hardly surprising that he figures prominently among middle-order pairs that have had maximum success in Sri Lanka: with Ramnaresh Sarwan he added 538 runs in five innings for an average of 107.60, while Carl Hooper and Lara combined to add 422 from six (average 70.33). (Click here for the complete list.)

Sri Lanka's spinners and the pitches there have been particularly troublesome for lower-order batsmen. The table below looks at partnerships for the last five wickets for overseas teams in each country, and the numbers tell the story: Sri Lanka is the hardest place for these batsmen to string together partnerships. In 396 stands, only 33 have gone past the 50-run mark, and just seven past 100.

And it turns out that India's lower order has struggled more than that of most other teams in Sri Lanka - partnerships for wickets six to ten average a measly 14.93, which is only marginally better than the corresponding numbers for West Indies and Bangladesh. In 34 stands, only twice have Indian pairs managed partnerships of more than 50.

Click here for the list of most successful lower-order overseas pairs in Sri Lanka since 2000.