Pakistan’s official international cricket journey began in 1952, following it’s recognition as a Test-playing nation. Its first pair of Test openers were a seventeen year old prodigy called Hanif Mohammad and a seasoned veteran Nazar Mohammad. While Nazar’s career came to a premature end after Pakistan’s inaugural Test series, Hanif would go on to acquire legendary status, serving as the sheet anchor of the national side for the next fifteen years.

Since those early days Pakistan has been served by many opening pairs in all the three international formats of the game. Comparing them is never an easy task, particularly across a time span that stretches to almost seven decades. What is perhaps easier to determine is who have been the most successful statistically, while acknowledging the caveat that mere numbers alone do not always reflect quality. Since each format of the modern game requires a different skill set, the opening pairs vary both in their composition and performance in each sphere and arena, making assessments more valid if each format is considered separately.

Test Cricket

There have been four Pakistani opening pairs who have partnership aggregates of over 1000 Test runs.

Mohsin Khan & Mudassar Nazar 2057 runs

Saeed Anwar & Aamir Sohail 1563 runs

Taufeeq Umar & Mohammad Hafeez 1438 runs

Majid Khan and Sadiq Mohammad 1391 runs

Mohsin and Mudassar formed a contrasting pair of openers with totally different styles. Mohsin was a natural, free flowing stroke player while Mudassar was sedate and dogged in defence. They opened with each other in 54 innings between 1981 and 1986, scoring 2057 runs at an average of 39.56 runs per innings. These included 3 century partnerships and 16 stands of over 50 runs. Their highest partnership was 157 versus India at Karachi in January 1983. They had a wonderful run of five consecutive partnerships of over 50 during a ten week period in in 1982, against Australia and India, with stands of 123, 92, 55, 85 and 55.

Saeed Anwar and Aamir Sohail formed an exciting and explosive pair of left handed openers who opened together for Pakistan in 37 innings from 1994 to 2000, scoring 1563 runs together at an average of 43.42 per outing. Their numbers included 4 century stands and 8 partnerships of 50 runs or more. Three successive partnerships of over 90 runs each against Sri Lanka and Australia in 1994 formed part of a seven innings stretch in which they scored 515 runs in tandem, with one century stand and 4 over fifty, at an average of 73.57. Their highest partnership was 128 versus Sri Lanka in Colombo in 1994.

Taufeeq Umar and Mohammad Hafeez formed a left handed/ right handed pair who opened on and off for Pakistan for nine years between 2003 and 2012. Their partnership ran an odd course. After opening together in four innings versus Bangladesh in 2003 there was a break of seven years before they were asked to partner again against South Africa in the UAE in 2010. In a total of 39 innings together they put on 1438 runs at an average of 38.86. This included 5 century stands and 7 over fifty. A stand of 164 versus Bangladesh at Chittagong in 2011 represents their best effort.

Majid Khan and Sadiq Mohammad were another right handed/left handed opening pair gifted with immense natural ability and contrasting temperaments and styles. As a child, Sadiq was coerced by his famous brothers to bat left-handed as it improved his chances of selection for Pakistan. Majid, on the other hand, started as a bowling all-rounder who then became a great middle order batsman.

On Pakistan’s tour of England in 1974, the team’s manager and famous commentator Omar Kuraishi, in his quest for a good opening pair to counter a strong English pace attack, came up with the brainwave of promoting Majid to open the innings with Sadiq. The idea was an immediate success. In their prime, Majid and Sadiq had few peers as an opening pair, combining power with effortless grace, a casual elegance, with the ball caressed or stroked to the fence. They delighted the crowds with the quality and variety of their shot making against both pace and spin, equally at ease on all types of wickets, both at home and abroad. In 26 innings together as openers, between 1974 and 1978, Majid and Sadiq put on 1391 runs for a wonderful average of 53.50 runs per innings. They began with stands of 71 and 55 at Lords in August 1974 and concluded equally successfully with partnerships of 84 and 54 versus India at Faisalabad in October 1978. Half their partnerships resulted in stands of over 50, with 4 hundreds and 9 fifties. This included a four innings stint with three centuries and a fifty, from October 1976 to January 1977. Their best stand was 147 versus New Zealand at Karachi in 1976, which included Majid’s famous century before lunch on the opening day of the Test.

One-day Internationals

In ODIs there are 6 Pakistani opening pairs who have crossed the aggregate of 1000 runs in partnerships between them.

Saeed Anwar & Aamir Sohail 2856 runs

Saeed Anwar & Shahid Afridi 2056 runs

Mohsin Khan & Mudassar Nazar 1783 runs

Fakhar Zaman & Imamul Haq 1780 runs

Ramiz Raja & Aamir Sohail 1197 runs

Kamran Akmal & Salman Butt 1000 runs

Saeed Anwar and Aamir Sohail carried their Test partnership form into the ODIs as well. In 73 innings together, in a ten year period from 1990 to 2000, they scored 2856 runs for an average of 39.12. This included 3 century partnerships and 20 stands over fifty. They also featured in 5 consecutive stands of over fifty in 1994 and a run of seven successive innings in 1996 that contained a century partnership and five in the fifties. Their best ODI stand was a 173 run partnership versus Sri Lanka in the Singer Championship in Sharjah in 1996.

Saeed Anwar also had a very successful ODI opening partnership pairing with Shahid Afridi. Between 1996 and 2003, this left hand - right hand combo, partnered each other in 63 innings, scoring 2056 runs at an average of 32.63 runs per innings. Their tally included 2 century stands and 11 over fifty. Their best partnership was 148 runs versus Sri Lanka in the Pepsi Cup at Jamshedpur in 1999. It is hard to imagine a more combustive opening pair than this duo, with their philosophy of all out attack, combining awesome, pulverizing power from Afridi and fluent timing and finesse from Saeed Anwar.

Mohsin Khan and Mudassar Nazar are another successful opening pair from the Test arena who also performed very creditably in ODI’s. Between 1981 and 1986 they had 54 opening partnerships in ODIs which netted them 1783 runs at 33.64 runs per innings, including 2 century stands and 10 fifty partnerships. Their best stand was 141 against Australia at Melbourne in 1985. Coincidentally, they partnered each other in 54 opening stands in both Tests and ODIs.

The left handed duo of Fakhar Zaman and Imamul Haq are the latest entrants in this list of Pakistani opening pairs who have aggregated at least 1000 runs together in ODI’s. Between 2017 and 2021, they have opened together for Pakistan in forty ODIs, accumulating 1780 runs at an average of 44.50 runs per innings. Against Zimbabwe in July 2018, in the course of five matches over nine days, they put together four century stands in five innings, for a total of 704 runs at an average of 140.80 runs per outing. This included a partnership of 304, which was a world record opening partnership in ODI’s at the time. This partnership came off only 252 balls and Fakhar subsequently proceeded to become the first Pakistani batsman to score a double century in an ODI, reaching 210 not out from just 156 deliveries with 24 fours and 5 sixes. The overall partnership figures for this pair include 5 century stands and 8 partnerships of over fifty.

Aamir Sohail’s contribution as an opening batsman in ODI’s was not limited to his partnership with Saeed Anwar alone. His first wicket partnerships with Ramiz Raja, from 1991 to 1995, also yielded 1197 runs at an average of 32.35 runs per innings. Another left-handed – right-handed combination, they opened together in 37 ODI’s, with a solitary century partnership and 10 other stands of over fifty. In fact 6 of these fifty plus partnerships were made in their last 9 ODI innings as an opening pair. The closed their career as an opening duo with back to back partnerships of 51 and 56 against New Zealand in Wellington and Auckland respectively.

Kamran Akmal and Salman Butt complete this list of Pakistani opening pairs who have aggregated over a thousand runs in ODIs. Yet another right hand - left hand partnership, the third in this group of six, Kamran Akmal and Salman Butt opened together for Pakistan in 29 ODIs, from 2005 to 2010, scoring exactly 1000 runs at an average of 34.48.

Kamran was a pugnacious, belligerent batsman who was not hesitant to take the attack to the bowling side while Salman would accumulate his runs through deft placements, angling the ball in the arc between cover and backward point. Both had a penchant for playing risky shots in the corridor of uncertainty outside their off stump, a weakness that bowlers often exploited. Sadly both were tainted by allegations of match/spot fixing. Their 1000 run tally includes a single partnership of over a hundred and a further 6 past the fifty mark. Their solo century stand of 151 against Bangladesh at Lahore in 2008, is also their highest. Both these openers scored centuries in that match with individual strike rates of over 100 runs per 100 balls.

T20 Internationals

In this new format of the game, there is just a single Pakistani opening pair that has crossed an aggregate of more than 500 runs.

Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan are Pakistan’s new emerging stars in this latest version of cricket. Probably the two best batsman in the national T20 team, they have recently been drafted into the role of playing as the team’s opening pair. Beginning in February 2021, they have opened together in ten T20’s so far, gathering 573 runs at a remarkable average of 57.30 per innings. This total includes two mammoth stands of 150 runs or more and two other partnerships in excess of fifty runs each. In April 2021, they opened with 197 in just 104 balls against South Africa at Centurion Park and three months later were involved in a 150 run opening stand in 88 balls at Nottingham in England.

Babar is a precocious talent, a complete batsman, who is already being rated as one of the best that Pakistan has ever produced. He belongs to that exclusive league of craftsmen who excel in all three formats of the game, with an ICC rating of number 1 in ODIs, number 2 in T20s and number 7 in Test cricket. Rizwan’s class was acknowledged by Wisden itself when he was nominated as one of their five cricketers of the year in 2021. This duet is rightly viewed by many pundits of the game as the best opening pair in T20 Internationals today.

From grafting stone-wallers to exhilarating stroke makers, from classic orthodoxy to heretic batting techniques, from ultra safe defence to irreverent exuberance Pakistan cricket has witnessed all forms of opening batting partnerships. What has remained constant is their critical role in laying the foundation upon which an innings rests, often determining, too, the pace and direction of the entire match that follows.

– Dr Salman Faridi is a senior surgeon, poet, sports aficionado and an avid reader with a private collection of over 7000 books.

salmanfaridilnh@hotmail.com