Top 5 Indian batting pairs in international cricket

#2 Rahul Dravid - Sachin Tendulkar

If there is one pair that will give the Tendulkar-Ganguly one a run for its money, it's the one that Tendulkar shares with yet another legend, Rahul Dravid. There is no argument to the statement that the three players together have been the pillars of support on which the Indian team stood for more than a decade.

After the premature death of his father during the 1999 World Cup, Tendulkar rushed home and back to England immediately, to keep India’s chances alive after they had just lost a game against Zimbabwe. Dravid and him went on to score an unbeaten 237 together as India beat Kenya by 94 runs.

The same year, a few months later, Sachin and Dravid again wreaked havoc, this time at Hyderabad against a hapless New Zealand opposition, both of them scoring their career-highs of 186 (Sachin later improved it) and 153 respectively, en route a record-making 331 run partnership.

Dravid's and Tendulkar's numbers are second only to Tendulkar-Ganguly, in terms of span, innings, runs, centuries and fifties. 67 of the 74 games they have made 50+ runs together, India have finished first on the podium.

Key numbers:

Span: 1996-2012

Innings: 241

Not-Outs: 11

Runs: 11037

High Score: 331

Average: 47.98

Centuries: 31

Fifties: 43