Stats: Players who opened the innings with most partners in Test cricket

England’s musical chairs around Alastair Cook in Test cricket continued as the left-hander has paired up with his 15th opening partner in the longest format. Durham’s Mark Stoneman became the newest partner to Cook replacing his County mate Keaton Jennings in the day/night Test match against West Indies at the Edgbaston. The English side failed to find a fitting 2nd opener while having a settled option in form of Cook, the longest serving opener in Test history.

Their troubles began after the retirement of Andrew Strauss, with whom Cook opened in the first half of his career. Nick Compton seemed to be working out before a loss of form put him out of the side. Cook spent nearly 3 years without a settled opening partner before England saw potential in young Haseeb Hameed, who made a solid start to his career during the tough tour of India. However, an injury ruled him out of the squad and has had troubles with form in domestic cricket thus denying him a recall.

Jennings, who received a longer run after Hameed’s exit, failed to grab his opportunities as he aggregated only 127 runs against South Africa in the 4-match Test series at home. Thus, he lost his spot to Stoneman, who made his Test debut at the age of 30.

List of opening partners of Alastair Cook in Test cricket:

By opening with 15 different players in Test cricket, Cook became one of the seven players to have opened with 15 and more players in the format. Sunil Gavaskar holds the record for opening the innings with most players as the former Indian opener shared the crease with 19 different individuals. Four out of the 7 players including Cook, who opened with 15 and more players are from England. Graham Gooch and Len Hutton opened the innings with 18 players while Geoff Boycott walked out to open with 16 players.

Players with most opening partners in Test cricket:

(Note: Partnerships with the player coming in for a ‘retired hurt’ opener are not considered in opening stands. Saeed Anwar’s tally goes up to 18 if Zahid Afzal is added to his list, who walked in after Aamer Sohail was retired hurt in Rawalpindi Test against Australia in 1994)

(Stats as on August 17, 2017)