Cricket is a game of partnerships and for a batting team, the runs scored by openers are of paramount importance. This age-old saying is true in the IPL as well, and we have had several prolific batting duos at the top of the order. They form the fulcrum of a batting line-up for a franchise, and good starts provided by them will help their campaign go a long way.
Franchises that have had a consistent opening pair throughout a season or over a couple of seasons tend to find success in the IPL historically. So here in this article, we list down the top 10 opening pairs with the most partnership runs scored in IPL history.
Most Partnership Runs as Opening Pair in IPL
| Partners | Inns | Total Partnership Runs | 50s/100s | Highest Partnership Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan (SRH) | 48 | 2220 | 12/6 | 139 |
| Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli (RCB) | 37 | 1890 | 9/5 | 172 |
| Ishan Kishan, Rohit Sharma (MI) | 43 | 1547 | 1/14 | 101 |
| Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa (KKR) | 39 | 1478 | 9/3 | 121 |
| Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw (DC) | 44 | 1461 | 9/2 | 138 |
| Jonny Bairstow, David Warner (SRH) | 24 | 1401 | 7/5 | 185 |
| Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (PBKS) | 24 | 1363 | 7/4 | 183 |
| Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith (CSK, GL) | 38 | 1363 | 7/3 | 123 |
| Michael Hussey, Murali Vijay (CSK) | 34 | 1360 | 11/2 | 159 |
| Quinton de Kock, Rohit Sharma (MI) | 37 | 1269 | 10/0 | 96 |
Key Insights
14: This is the number of opening pairs who have scored 1000 or more runs together in the IPL. Apart from the 10 mentioned here, CSK’s Devon Conway-Ruturaj Gaikwad, MI’s Ishan Kishan-Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul-Chris Gayle for PBSK and RCB, and GT’s Wriddhiman Saha-Shubman Gill are the other pairs to have achieved this feat.
2220 is the highest partnership tally by an opening pair, and it was amassed by Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner while opening for SRH. They also have had 6 100+ stands in the IPL, the most by any pair while averaging 47.23 in the process.
Also Read | The List of 200+ Partnerships in IPL
Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith have opened batting for 2 different sides in the IPL (Gujarat Lions and Chennai Super Kings).
185 is the second-highest partnership for the opening wicket in the IPL, and it was between Jonny Bairstow and David Warner while playing for SRH in 2019. Overall, KL Rahul and de Kock’s 210* runs stand is at the top of the list among opening stands.
58.37 is the batting average of Jonny Bairstow and David Warner when batting together, and this is the most for any opening pair with over 1000 IPL partnership runs. Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul’s batting average of 56.79 comes next.
