Top 5 England Test opening pairs of all time

#1 Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss

The unfortunate return of Marcus Trescothick from the tour of India back in 2006 opened the door for 21-year-old Alastair Cook and he scored a century on his debut at Nagpur to lay the foundations of the most prolific opening partnership in English cricket history.

Along with Andrew Strauss, who was already an established opener, Cook formed an incredibly solid opening partnership and it coincided with England's rise as one of the best Test teams in the world. Both were incredibly solid batsmen and the left-handed pair revelled in grinding opposition bowlers.

Cook had the technical excellence, the hunger for runs and the ability to play the long innings, while Strauss became a more attacking batsman during the period between 2006 and 2012.

They opened 117 times and scored 4711 runs, at an average of 40.96. The number of century stands was 12, while they crossed the 50 run barrier 18 times.