Top 5 England Test opening pairs of all time

#2 Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe

Among the many fine opening batsmen that England have produced, Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe will always figure among the finest. In the last six years of Hobbs' career, he opened the innings with a young Herbert Sutcliffe and created a legendary partnership that is still regarded as one of the greatest ever in cricket history.

Both players were technically superb, had almost all the strokes on the book and most importantly, they could negotiate a venomous pitch.

During the course of 6 seasons from 1924 to 1930, Hobbs and Sutcliffe opened 38 times and aggregated 3249 runs, which remained a record for a long time.

However, what really places them among the world's greatest opening partnerships is the average of 87.81.

They crossed the hundred run mark 15 times and crossed fifty on 10 occasions. That is a staggering return for a pair which only opened the innings 38 times.