Aakash Chopra analyses Test openers and picks Rohit & Mayank as the second-best opening pair in Test cricket. He reached this conclusion after evaluating their performances over the last couple of years.
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Aakash Chopra picks his current favourite Test opening pair
Former India opener Aakash Chopra was speaking on the standard of Test openers overs the years when he mentioned that earlier there were very good opening pairs which is missing nowadays. “There was a time when we had very good opening partnerships in World cricket like Gautam Gambhir-Virender Sehwag, Matthew Hayden-Justin Langer, Gordon Greenidge-Desmond Haynes, Alastair Cook-Andrew Strauss, and Graeme Smith-Herschelle Gibbs. But today’s openers are not able to deal with the swinging ball. The new ball is repeated attacking you and you have no answer. That is why we are looking at the opening pairs across the world.”
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The former Delhi opener then went on to analyze the performance of some such pairs over the years. He thinks that Tom Latham and Tom Blundell, the opening pair from New Zealand is currently doing the best job. “They are good because they average at 47.14. And they have scored a lot of runs at home, with the New Zealand conditions being tough. Latham averages 52.9 and Blundell 41.3. he added, “Blundell also had a very good tour to Australia. We can call this pair fairly decent. Tom Latham has scored runs in India as well while Blundell didn’t come here.” “I am going with Tom Latham and Tom Blundell as the best opening pair in Test match scenario at this moment,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
Indian pair comes at second
During the discussion, he spoke about India’s new Test pair, Rohit Sharma-Mayank Agarwal. “It is a new partnership and it is growing. They have done a good job in limited opportunities. They have an average of almost 70 together with Rohit averaging 73.6 and Mayank 57.3. These are fairly good numbers.” But according to Chopra, “But what goes against them is that they have not played together outside India. When we went to New Zealand, Mayank had Prithvi Shaw as the partner as Rohit was not there, and before that Rohit was not being made to open. Mayank was fairly decent but we have not seen Rohit as an opener overseas.”
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So in his list, the Indian pair is at the second spot. “At close second I will keep the Indian openers, Rohit and Mayank. I hope that when Rohit goes to Australia now, he will do well, he has got enough experience and not much to prove. The 14-day quarantine will work in everybody’s favour because you will befriend the conditions.”
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