As the Indian Premier League 2026 (IPL 2026) season enters the final stages, India and former KKR batsman Manoj Tiwary have shared their biggest opening pair in IPL history. While Virat Kohli’s name dominated the “this or that” contest, Tiwari’s choice surprised many.
Over the years, the IPL has seen some incredible opening partnerships, from title-winning pairings to devastating batting pairs that dominated the bowlers throughout the season. These include famous names like Rohit Sharma-Quinton de Kock, and Virat Kohli-Faf du Plessis.
Manoj Tiwari chose the biggest opening pair of IPL; Travis Head-Abhishek Sharma impressed him with the post
Recently, while speaking with Cricbuzz, Manoj Tiwary has picked Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) explosive openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma as one of the most dangerous opening combinations ever seen in IPL history. His fearless batting style has completely changed the T20 approach.
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In a very short time, the SRH duo has created complete chaos for the bowlers. Since 2024, Head and Abhishek have already scored over 1,600 runs at an average close to 49 and an incredible strike rate of 254.1, the most for any opening pair in IPL history.
His aggressive attitude has also helped Sunrisers Hyderabad Became one of the most dangerous batting teams in the tournament. The pair already hold the record for the two highest power play scores in IPL history – 125/0 and 107/0.
Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma left behind many legendary opening partnerships
During the “This or That” session, several legendary pairs were pitted against each other, such as David Warner and Shikhar Dhawanwho were once the mainstays of SRH’s batting for years at the top, and Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa, who were the backbone of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) during their most successful years.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) icons Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and Faf du Plessis also attended. It all started with Michael Hussey and Murali Vijay versus Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa and Tiwary went with the former KKR openers who have scored more than 1900 runs together.
Then, cricket pundits chose David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan in place of Gambhir-Uthappa, with the former SRH stars scoring over 2350 runs together in 50 innings. However, Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis won the race against Warner-Dhawan as their aggressive batting led RCB to score almost 2000 runs in just 37 innings.
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Manoj Tiwari picks Virat Kohli-Chris Gayle as the best opening pair of IPL
However, the former Bengal sports minister chose Head and Abhishek over Kohli-Plessis; Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya (600+ runs); Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock (1000+ runs); And Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal (1200+ runs) during the intense phase.
Then, Kohli and Chris Gayle overtook all the opening pairs including Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad (1100+ runs), Shubman Gill and Sai Sudarshan (1800+ runs), and David Warner and Jonny Bairstow (1400+ runs). Tiwari said that Kohli and Gayle are still above the rest.
Gayle and Kohli together scored nearly 2,800 runs with nine century partnerships in 59 innings as the opening pair for RCB. And Tiwary has led the RCB stalwarts to be named as the best opening pair in IPL history due to their consistency, dominance and big partnership numbers over the years.
Gayle-Kohli or Head-Abhishek?@tiwarymanoj chooses the best #IPL opening pair@GoogleIndia #IPL2026 pic.twitter.com/g1IeMtonNN
– Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) 9 May 2026
