In cricket’s all format Australia pride themselves to have best opening pair, however post 2019 World Cup there has been inconsistency of runs for first wicket. At end of 3-match series against West Indies, Australian now have played 16 ODIs since World Cup 2019 winning 8 losing 8.
In these 16 matches their opening pair scored 933 Runs @ 58.31 runs/inn, which is amazing …but it is based on three large stands (including one mammoth 258 Run).
If we remove these three innings than opening stand looks ordinary.
Hence to measure any consistency we need to find how many are consecutive!. In this case of runs, we need to find how many substantial runs were scored consecutively.
Let us take 35 as substantial runs for opening wicket, and see how many times opening pair were able to post 35 or more runs regularly. Interestingly in 16 matches, six times opening stand posted more than 35 runs, and only once it was back to back (consecutive)
Here is Australia’s opening pair since World Cup 2019
Now let us look at Australia's best opening pair in ODI cricket.
In above gfx you have three great pair of openers that Australia has produced in last two decades.
In my view openers Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden are arguably the best pair One Day Cricket has seen so far!.
There is still time for next World Cup, yet they need to find couple of reliable opening pair who can perform consistently. The closet is not entirely empty.
