Partnerships are perhaps the most important thing in test cricket, best bowling or batting. A batting pair can take away a match from the opposition if they stitch a big partnership for any wicket and the same goes for the bowlers who hunt in pairs. India over the years has been blessed with some of the best batters across different generations and many pairs have been involved in big partnerships.
Out of the many legendary partnerships in the history of test cricket by Indian batters , finding a place in the Top of this list is extremely difficult. So, let’s see which are the partnerships that are the highest for each wicket for India in Test cricket.
1st Wicket - Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy (413 Runs):
This has been the record for the best opening stand not just in Indian cricket but test cricket as a whole for more than 50 years before it was broken by the South Africa pair who made 415. This was simply an extraordinary partnership because very few times before that an opening stand had touched 400+ and both these batters were in imperious form with Vinoo Mankad scoring a great double hundred and Pankaj Roy made a good century as well.
2nd Wicket - Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara (370 Runs):
This partnership for the second wicket came against Australia in 2013 after Virender Sehwag was dismissed cheaply and both these batters frustrated the bowlers and Pujara made a wonderful double hundred and Murali Vijay ably supported him.and himself made an impressive 167 runs.
3rd Wicket - Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar (336 Runs):
This partnership is one of the most legendary partnerships in test cricket history as both these batters showed a batting masterclass. Virender Sehwag became the first Indian test batter to hit a triple hundred and the great Sachin Tendulkar made 194 amazing runs and they posted a huge score.
4th Wicket - Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane (365 Runs):
This momentous partnership featuring the two best batters of the Indian test team for a number of years was made against New Zealand where Virat and Ajinkya steadied the batting first and then they showed all their skills going forward and as a result Virat Kohli scored a double hundred and Ajinkya Rahane made an outstanding 188 runs for the team.
5th Wicket - VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid (376 Runs):
Perhaps there has never been a more important partnership in the history of Indian test cricket as this one with VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid at the Eden Gardens in 2001. India were following on and looked all set to lose but then came these two incredible batters came in the crease and just started scoring runs and didn’t get our for a whole day and VVS Laxman played the greatest test innings by an Indian with 281 and Rahul Dravid scored an amazing score of over 150 to win this match for India.
6th Wicket - Dilip Vengsarkar and Ravi Shastri (208 Runs):
India were at 219-5 when both these batters came in the crease and slowly both these batsmen started building a partnership and they were playing their strokes as well and as time went on they showed all their class and In the end both these great players scored wonderful hundreds and took India’s score over 500 runs.
7th Wicket - Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin (280 Runs):
This monster of a partnership at the lower stages of the Innings came in the debut test match of the now great Rohit Sharma and he immediately made a massive impact in test cricket. Both these batters destroyed the West Indies attack systemically and with ease and as they went along, Rohit Sharma made a brilliant 177 runs and Ravichandran Ashwin made 124 runs and the poor West Indies bowlers could do nothing.
8th Wicket - Virat Kohli and Jayant Yadav (241 Runs):
Virat Kohli was batting alone as most of the middle order Batsmen were getting out one by one and then came Jayant Yadav who along with Virat Kohli stitched a crucial lower order partnership for India and Virat Kohli made yet another double hundred and Jayant Yadav made a very memorable test century to his Name.
9th Wicket - Nana Joshi and Ramakant Desai (149 Runs):
The Indian batting was at a spot of bother in this match with 300 runs with 8 wickets lost and India needed a big partnership and stepped up Nana Joshi and Ramakant Desai who steadily built their partnership giving no chances to the Pakistani bowlers of getting them out and after a marathon 149 run partnership where both these lower order batters scored very good half centuries India were in control.
10th Wicket - Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan (133 Runs):
Sachin Tendulkar was the highest scorer in the innings with his highest test score of 248 runs and no other batter in the entire innings could make a valuable contribution and then came Zaheer Khan who played the innings of his life and made a very aggressive 75 runs at a strike rate of over 65.
