8 pairs of cricketers who had telepathic understanding between them

The solid middle-order of India was about these two playersCricket is a game of partnerships whether it is of batting or of bowling. Some batsmen endure the tough conditions and the dangerous bowlers to make things easier for the rest. Some bowlers hunt in pairs, sometimes one keeping an end quiet and creating pressure for the partner to benefit.Over the decades, there have been batting and bowling pairs who have almost had a telepathic understanding between them. These pairs benefited their team by together forming a great shield or a potent force which helped the cause of their team.Such pairs excelled because of the support they received from the other end and things were rarely ever the same once the partnership was broken.Here we look at several such pairs who achieved great heights.NOTE: Sachin-Ganguly, who were the world’s greatest ODI opening pair with tons of records don’t feature on this list purely because they were not telepathic and succeeded because of their individual brilliance and contrasting left-right combination.The Greenidge-Haynes pair misses out narrowly and so does the great pair of Hayden and Langer that together weathered many storms.

#1 Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis

Wasim and Waqar were arguably the greatest fast bowling pair of all-time

Almost every great list of partnerships in Test cricket would feature this pair. They were legendary by numbers alone - 559 wickets in 61 Tests at a stunning average of 22.12 and strike-rate of 45.65 in spite of bowling on some of the flattest and most unfriendly wickets for fast bowlers in the sub-continent.

But numbers rarely tell the story of this great partnership. The Sultans of Swing changed the art of fast bowling with the red cherry, splitting their spoils almost equally, Wasim with 282 wickets and Waqar with 277. The proponents of reverse swing could make the ball talk at searing pace, working in tandem on the ball, using the shine and rough surface almost magically.

Waqar intimidated the batsmen with in-dipping yorkers and toe-crushers with banana swing. Wasim came over with his left-arm, skiddy action and nipped them out with length deliveries that moved in and out viciously. Neither of them gave anything away and almost always seemed like two violinists playing a symphony without a spoken word, matching each other note for note.

#2 Shane Warne and Ian Healy

Ian Healy congratulating teammate Shane Warne on his 100th Test wicket

This is a telepathic pair that rarely gets talked. But Warne, who played almost half his Test matches with Healy as the wicket-keeper will always have a lot to thank the specialist behind the stumps, especially in his formative years.

Warne and Healy almost always understood each other, Healy always up to the task whether it is with the vicious leg-spinner that would turn and bounce, the wide fired down the leg for a stumping chance or the flipper.

Healy read Warne beautifully and over the years managed to take some spectacular catches, contributing to a lot of the 322 wickets Warne took while they played together. That Warne’s best innings and match figures came while Healy was around is no surprise.

#3 Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman

Dravid and Laxman during the great 2001 Kolkata Test against Australia

Dravid and Tendulkar hold the record for most Test runs in partnership - 6920 at an average of 50 and with 20 centuries, the most by any pair in Test history. However, when it comes to a telepathic understanding between batsmen, it was Laxman and Dravid whose names you would recall.

The pair which added 376 and played an entire day together against Australia in Kolkata had managed to resurrect many Indian innings through strong rear-guard action. The 354 against Australia that set up a great win in Adelaide against the Invincibles of Steve Waugh is another example.

Despite playing two and sometimes three positions apart, the duo are tenth on the list of most runs by partners with 4065 runs at 51.45, each of those runs worth its weight in gold. They also complemented each other well, Dravid stonewalling the best bowlers while Laxman making surgical cuts to bleed the opponent dry.

#4 Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene

Jayawardene and Sangakkara were two gems of Sri Lanka

Holders of the record for the greatest Test partnership, 624 against South Africa, Sangakkara and Jayawardene are the Jai-Veeru of Test cricket, inseparable friends on and off the field. The two pillars of Sri Lanka golden era, Mahela and Sangakkara are second on the list of most partnership runs both in Test cricket and ODI cricket.

With 6554 runs at 56.50, Sanga and Mahela were a pair that were born to play together. Both equally elegant, using the left-right combination to great effect and running beautifully between the wickets with a great understanding, Mahela and Sanga strategized beautifully in the middle and were the architects of many great Sri Lankan victories.

#5 Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir

Jai-Veeru of India

4412 runs at 52.52 make Sehwag and Gambhir India’s greatest Test opening pair coming together at a time when India were used to having bad starts, especially while playing away from home. Hailing from the same Ranji team Delhi, Sehwag and Gambhir ran phenomenally between the wickets with each other, despite being a little more tentative around others.

Gambhir the accumulator and Sehwag the dasher garnered runs and blocked opponents, while rotating the strike with ease, effortlessly in most conditions. No wonder, India reached the epitome of Test rankings with them at the top, the team players that they were.

They are also the eighth most prolific partners in Test cricket ever and the fifth greatest opening pair in terms of sheer volume of runs. Their left-right combination and natural camaraderie made them intimidating to bowlers especially on Indian tracks with the batsmen attacking in turns.

#6 Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh

The two demons of West Indies attack

The tall, hit-the-deck bowlers terrorised batsmen in the late 80s and early 90s. Capable of generating steep bounce thanks to their height, the two bowlers were largely responsible to help West Indies put up a substantial fight even after their glory days.

The great partnership boasts of 762 wickets 203 more than the next pair of Wasim and Waqar, with Ambrose claiming 389 of those and Walsh claiming 373, with a deadly average of 22.67. They were also the second best new ball pair of all time behind Akram and Waqar with 412 wickets at 22.10.

Walsh this time takes the cherry with 226 of those wickets. The duo had 15 wicket Tests too like in Trinidad in 1994, with England the usual victim of their intimidating bowling not lacking for skill at all.

#7 Anil Kumble - Rahul Dravid & Muttiah Muralitharan - Mahela Jayawardene

“Kumble was the bowler and Dravid was the catcher”

There is no reason why you cannot include the partnership between a slip fielder and a bowler in this list. Jayawardene and Dravid were naturals at the slip, making it look easy when anyone who has seen spinners operate on sub-continent wickets would understand it is anything but easy.

The Sri Lankan pair accounted for 77 wickets and the Indian pair for 55 wickets. What makes these pairs special compared to most of the other slip catchers’ partnerships with the bowlers is how irreplaceable the two slip catchers were.

Spinners need that confidence from the close-in fielders especially on tracks which are breaking and turning on the fourth and fifth day and Jayawardene and Dravid managed to pull off stunners, sometimes unsighted.

It comes as no wonder that the pair of Jayawardene and Murali has the record for most dismissals between a bowler and fielder and that John Wright rates Dravid as the best slip catcher ever, corroborated by his record.

Sri Lanka’s Jayawardene and Muralitharan