New Ball Partnerships in Test Cricket

This was touched on the test thread, albeit grudgingly, by Red. The record is now held by Broad and Anderson. For me, Wasim and Waqar were probably the more effective pairing in all conditions. But you can't deny the stats. It occurs to me that if they can both maintain form and fitness over the next couple of years, they will eventually set a record which may never be broken.

Discuss.

Probably right.

I noted that last night was also the first time since 2002 that than Poms had had 2 right handed openers in a test match.

JGK wrote:Probably right.

I noted that last night was also the first time since 2002 that than Poms had had 2 right handed openers in a test match.

Ah, I wondered when it was. My money had been on Atherton and Maddy in 1999.

In terms of wickets taken they will definitely set a mark that might be difficult to topple.

But as the averages of the respective pairings have shown, they are a fair way away from some of the other names on that list, most averaging around 22 whereas Broad and Anderson have a very respectable average of 26 odd.

So whilst in terms of wickets taken they will set a record that should stand for many many years, I don't think they are close to being the most fearsome opening partnership in test history, every other pairing in the top 5 looked better for me and I imagine there were a few other West Indian opening partnerships that were more daunting to face first up. They just haven't played as many matches together as Broad and Anderson.

That's not to diminish them, but I think there is a bit of day light between them and the absolute best pairings in history.

Basil wrote:This was touched on the test thread, albeit grudgingly, by Red. The record is now held by Broad and Anderson. For me, Wasim and Waqar were probably the more effective pairing in all conditions. But you can't deny the stats. It occurs to me that if they can both maintain form and fitness over the next couple of years, they will eventually set a record which may never be broken.

Discuss.

They have set a very high mark and look set to continue for at least another year or two, barring injury.

Whether their final mark will ever be broken depends on whether Tests become more frequent or less frequent again, whether Tests continue to be played in daylight conditions or at night with a white ball, whether Test cricket splits into two divisions (robbing good bowlers in good teams of the chance to mop up against weaker teams, as has occurred in the past) ... let alone the relative rarity of two good fast bowlers arriving on the scene relatively simultaneously, and both having a good injury-free run, without some other penetrative bowlers to take a large proportion of the available wickets.

Waqar/Wasim is still probably the most potent pairing I've seen and McGrath/Gillespie was very potent for 7-8 years too. Lillee and Thomson might have been well up there as well if not for Thomson's 1976-7 injury (this occurred well after Lillee's injury and return to Test cricket, so I'm totally discounting the effect of DK's earlier injury on the wicket-taking of this pair) and of course the WSC split. Other partnerships eg Botham/Willis were very potent and of course potential WI record-breaking pairs barring Ambrose/Walsh were always largely cruelled by the fact that there were always another couple of hunters in the same side 'stealing' their wickets!