Open at your own risk: Why England is not the best place for openers | In Numbers - watsupptoday.com
Open at your own risk: Why England is not the best place for openers | In Numbers
Posted 09 Jul 2020 10:40 AM

Lush green top and overcast conditions are a paradise for pace-bowling units, especially one bearing the likes of the new-ball pair of Shannon Gabriel and Kemar Roach. But on the contrary, such a scenario is quite nervy for any opening pair in world cricket, more so for a pair with a combined appearance of just 21 Tests.

On Wednesday morning, opener Dominic Sibley, who was making only his fifth Test appearance and about whom the only talking point was his weight loss amid the pandemic, was dismissed only in the 10th ball of the game hence getting international cricket off to the most English starts.
England has never been the best place for openers. Ask the Indian team that toured the country in 2018, whose opening pair averaged 23.70 in 10 innings meaning only three 50-plus stands; or the Australian side during the Ashes last summer. Their opening pair averaged only 8.50 with no fifty-plus scores.

Statistically speaking, among all the Test-playing nations, it is in England that opening pairs have averaged the least since 2017, with Sibley's dismissal sending the average down to 18.67. In the last 78 Test innings, only nine half-century stands have been stitched by openers in England.

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