5 dream cross-generation openers who would have blunted out any attack in Test cricket

#2 Matthew Hayden and David Warner

Matthew Hayden and David Warner would be a destructive pair

Replacing a great player is not easy. Often, it takes years to fill the void a great player's departure leaves. Australia, however, are lucky in this regard. Less than three years after Matthew Hayden's retirement, they managed to find an almost perfect replacement in the form of David Warner.

At the beginning of his career, Hayden had been deemed unfit for test cricket owing to technical deficiencies in his game. He overcame those by sheer hard work and the courage to take the game to the opponent's camp each time he took the field. Consequentially, he became Australia's highest grossing opener with a haul of 8625 runs at an average in excess of 50.

Courtesy of his swashbuckling batting, Warner was labelled as a limited overs' specialist at the beginning of his career. However, when a chance to wear the baggie green arrived, he took it with aplomb. In only the second test of his career, he carried the bat versus New Zealand and took his team to within touching distance of a win. The 30-year old hasn't looked back ever since as he has effortlessly replicated his limited over exploits in tests.

A Hayden-Warner combine would take the game away from any opponent in no time.