List of centuries by both openers in the same innings for India

Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay have formed a solid opening partnership for India

The ongoing Test match at Fatullah has been a rain-affected one, but the Indian openers still made the most of the time possible in the match. India had won the toss and elected to bat first. The openers Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan were playing their natural game from the beginning. Dhawan was scoring quick runs while Vijay batted steadily.

Dhawan reached his 50 in 47 balls, 100 in 101 balls and then 150 in 158 balls before the rain stopped play for the rest of the first day. India played just 56 overs on the first day and scored 239 without loss. Vijay was unbeaten on 89 and Dhawan was unbeaten on 150. The second day was washed out completely. On the third day, Vijay reached his sixth century in Tests. With his century, it became only the eighth instance of both Indian openers scoring centuries in the same innings in a Test match.

Vijay and Dhawan had both scored centuries in the latter’s debut Test match against Australia at Mohali in 2013. They have now become the first Indian pair to score centuries in the same Test innings twice. Previously, six other pairs did it. The table below lists the instances.

Both the Indian openers scoring a century in the same Test innings

Opener 1	Opener 2	Against	Partnership	Venue	Date	Result
Vijay Merchant (114)	Mushtaq Ali (112)	England	203	Old Trafford	25-Jul-36	Drawn
Vinoo Mankad (231)	Pankaj Roy (173)	New Zealand	413	Madras	06-Jan-56	Won
Sunil Gavaskar (172)	Kris Srikkanth (116)	Australia	191	SCG	02-Jan-86	Drawn
Virender Sehwag (254)	Rahul Dravid (128*)	Pakistan	410	Lahore	13-Jan-06	Drawn
Dinesh Karthik (129)	Wasim Jaffer (138*)	Bangladesh	175	Mirpur	25-May-07	Won
Gautam Gambhir (167)	Virender Sehwag (131)	Sri Lanka	233	Kanpur	24-Nov-09	Won
Murali Vijay (153)	Shikhar Dhawan (187)	Australia	289	Mohali	14-Mar-13	Won
Murali Vijay (150)	Shikhar Dhawan (173)	Bangladesh	283	Fatullah	10-Jun-15	-

• The first Indian pair to do so was Vijay Merchant and Mushtaq Ali, against England at Old Trafford in Manchester in 1936.
• The next was Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy, who notched up a partnership of 413 which was the highest opening partnership in Test matches then, surpassing Jack Hobbs-Wilfred Rhodes’ 323 for England against Australia at MCG in 1912. 413 stood as a record for 52 years until Neil McKenzie-Graeme Smith added 415 against Bangladesh in 2008.
• Virender Sehwag-Rahul Dravid came close to breaking the record for the highest opening partnership of 413 but fell short by 4 runs.
• Only two of the above eight pairs have scored centuries in the same innings in Test matches outside the subcontinent – Vijay Merchant-Mushtaq Ali at Old Trafford and Sunil Gavaskar-Kris Srikkanth at Sydney.
• Murali Vijay-Shikhar Dhawan is the only pair to do it twice. Both times, they both scored 150+. Vinoo Mankad-Pankaj Roy is the only other Indian pair to score 150+ in a Test innings.

Pairs scoring centuries in the same innings most often

With Murali Vijay-Shikhar Dhawan achieving the feat twice, let’s list the pairs that have done it more than once. The Matthew Hayden-Justin Langer pair has done it most number of times – six times.

Pair	Team	Number of times
Justin Langer & Matthew Hayden	Australia	6
Bill Lawry & Bob Simpson	Australia	4
Herbert Sutcliffe & Jack Hobbs	England	3
Graeme Smith & Herschelle Gibbs	South Africa	3
Desmond Haynes & Gordon Greenidge	West Indies	3
Mark Taylor & Michael Slater	Australia	2
Imrul Kayes & Tamim Iqbal	Bangladesh	2
Murali Vijay & Shikhar Dhawan	India	2
AB de Villiers & Graeme Smith	South Africa	2
Graeme Smith & Neil McKenzie	South Africa	2
Marvan Atapattu & Sanath Jayasuriya	Sri Lanka	2

Number of occasions for each team

Team	Number of times
Australia	19
Bangladesh	2
England	13
India	8
New Zealand	4
Pakistan	2
South Africa	11
Sri Lanka	2
West Indies	8
Zimbabwe	0

Only thrice has a team lost when both their openers have scored centuries in the same innings. Here are the 3 occasions when it has happened:

1. Jack Hobbs (154)-Herbert Sutcliffe (176) for England against Australia at MCG in 1925
2. Adrian Griffith (114)-Sherwin Campbell (170) for West Indies against New Zealand at Hamilton in 1999.
3. Justin Langer (111)-Matthew Hayden (177) for Australia against West Indies at St John’s in 2003.