The Best Batting Partnerships of the Decade

When it comes to batting, most of the focus is often placed on individual milestones.

Players are judged by various statistics, such as their average, number of fifties, and how many they have converted into hundreds.

Amidst all individual accolades, though, a light must be shined on partnerships. The importance of a good batting partnership cannot be understated. Whether it is one that you know is likely to wear down bowlers, allowing other more destructive batters to cash in later in the innings, or it’s your two most dependable players, navigating the team out of dangerous waters after an early collapse.
Effective partnership batting can force captains to try things they don’t want to, bowl bowlers they would rather hold back, and potentially make mistakes.

With that in mind, we decided to show partnership batting a little bit of love, identifying some of the best partnerships and examples from the last decade.

Smith and Labuscagne

While it is never fun to start an appreciation post with a nod to the Aussies, the partnership that Smith and Labuscagne have formed over the last five years has been incredible, especially at home.

Considering Labuscagne only managed to get into the team as a concussion sub for Smith speaks volumes to the impact, he has had on the team at number three, managing to not only hold a place in a middle order that boasts plenty of options but also become one of the first names on the Test team sheet.

Over recent years, both players have ground down opposition attacks, with patience and resilience at the heart of their success.

However, this partnership has not quite been so fruitful in recent years, which has led to Smith opting to become the new Test opener and some calling for Labuscagne to be dropped.
We may just have seen the best days of this particular batting partnership.

Bairstow and Roy

Moving away from Test cricket for a moment, and it is hard to think of a more destructive opening partnership than Roy and Bairstow in men’s ODI cricket.

The signs were there long before these two came together, with Roy and Hales both helping England launch their new brand of ODI cricket after the horrendous showing at the 2015 World Cup.

But after Hales was deemed untrustworthy by then-captain Morgan after a series of off-field incidents, Bairstow and Roy came together to form one of the most destructive partnerships in world cricket.

There were fears that their dominance was all for nothing when Roy suffered a dip in form right before the 2019 World Cup, and injuries in the group stages, but the two came together to help England lift the trophy on home soil.

Since then, Roy has been replaced at the top of the order, with Bairstow’s time also coming to an end due to many exciting prospects waiting for their time to shine.

Stokes and Leach

Could you really have an article about partnerships without talking about THE partnership of the last decade?

Sure, Stokes and Leach aren’t known for their partnership batting, and Leach is certainly not known for his batting in general, but the two made history in Headingly in 2019, as they knocked off a seemingly mammoth 76-run partnership.

The best part? Leach contributed one run to the entire partnership, capturing the crowd’s adoration with his resilient defence and frequent glasses-cleaning antics.

So much is his popularity with the Headingley crowd that he has his own painted electric box outside the ground, accompanied by his score and glasses for good measure.

This famous partnership was the epitome of how to bat with a tail-ender, as Stokes gave Leach as few balls as possible to face, trying to farm the strike and score as quickly as possible.

To Leach’s credit, he defended resiliently, which is more than can be said for the few batters who came before him.

As the score crept closer and closer, the Australians became more and more frantic, desperately trying to take the final wicket to win the Ashes.

But Stokes and Leach’s partnership took England over the line, keeping the Ashes alive and living long in the memory of any Test cricket fan.

Partnerships to Look Out For

While these are all excellent examples of formidable partnerships from the past, we shouldn’t just look backwards.

There are many potential partnerships that could capture the imagination over the next decade, too.

Whether it be the impressive opening partnership of Crawley and Duckett, the explosive antics of Jacks and Salt in the white-ball format, or the seemingly endless talent from countries like Australia and India, there are plenty more partnerships for fans to look forward to, and opposing captains to have sleepless nights about.