Shikhar Dhawan celebrates his ‘unbreakable partnership’ with fellow opener Rohit Sharma

India have evolved as one of the strongest teams, especially in the limited over formats, and one of the biggest reasons behind the success has been their solid openers. Contrary to the Test scenario where Virat Kohli’s men have made frequent changes in the opening slots to find the right combination, the ODIs and T20Is have seen them sticking to the famed pair of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan. These two old warhorses have led India strongly on myriad occasions and are the highest aggregators of runs in ODIs in the opening slot.

Rohit and Shikhar are 4th highest run-getter as opening partners

Last year, Rohit and Dhawan had scripted one of the most dominating opening partnerships in the 50-over format when they belted 210 runs against Pakistan in the Asia Cup while chasing 238 and it remains their highest till date. The duo has put together 4,289 runs for the opening partnership in 94 matches since 2013 at an average of 46.11 (14 hundreds and 13 fifties).

While they are the top opening pair in terms of runs among the current players, overall, they are placed fourth behind compatriots Sachin Tendulkar-Sourav Ganguly (6,609 runs and 21 centuries), Australians Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden (5,372 runs and 16 centuries) and Caribbeans Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes (5,150 runs and 15 centuries).

Dhawan, who has been in good form in the ongoing ODI series against New Zealand, recently came up with a post on Instagram celebrating his partnership with Rohit. Besides a current photo of themselves, Dhawan also posted an old photo of his with Rohit in their younger days and captioned it “Partners in crime! Jodi no.1.” He also mentioned in Hindi in the picture “Raano ka Jod hain tootega nehi” (it’s a partnership of runs, won’t break).

Here’s his Instagram post

India have not made any experimentations with the opening duo keeping in mind the weightage Rohit and Dhawan’s partnership brings to the side. Their last century-run stand came in the second game against the Black Caps in Mount Maunganui and the fans would hope that there are many more yet to come.

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