Stats: Two left-handers opening the innings for India

Team India’s consistency with regards to fielding a different opening pair in Test cricket over the last couple of years continued Shikhar Dhawan walked into the XI to pair up with Abhinav Mukund at the top due to KL Rahul’s illness. Thus the pair became only the 3rd all left-handed opening duo for India in Test cricket.

India usually prefers to open the innings with a left-right combination or two right handers but has opened with both lefties in extreme cases. In Test cricket, the first of the three instances of left-handers opening innings for India was in 2005, the 2nd innings vs Sri Lanka where Gautam Gambhir opened with night watchman opener Irfan Pathan.

Later in 2011, Abhinav Mukund played ahead of injured Virender Sehwag at Lord’s and opened along with Gautam Gambhir. The left-handers batted together only once as Gambhir couldn’t open the innings in the 2nd innings due to fitness issues.

Even in the limited-overs formats, India hardly fielded with two left-handers as openers. In ODI cricket, 10 pairs have opened the innings in 35 matches while two pairs have done it on 3 different occasions in T20Is. Sourav Ganguly and Sadagoppan Ramesh are the longest serving left-handed pair as they batted in 16 ODIs.

Gambhir and Pathan are the only left-handed batters for India who have opened innings in all the 3 formats. They opened once in Test cricket, once in ODIs and twice in T20Is during the World T20 2012.

Left-handed opening pairs for India:

Tests:

ODIs:

T20Is:

(Stats as on July 26, 2017)