On this day 16 years ago

Batting can be a business of extreme isolation. Cricket matches are won and lost, or indeed drawn, by the collective, but each batsman bears the burden of his survival and run-scoring, unlike, for example, in football, where a goal is often the product of several assists, or in doubles tennis, where a partner can set up a winning volley with a deep groundstroke.

Yet partnerships are the lifeblood of cricket, through which innings are shaped and sustained. The performance that defined Brian Lara’s career, the match-winning 153 against Australia in Barbados in 1999, wouldn’t have been possible without Jimmy Adams’ stolid resistance for nearly three hours, and it would have been remembered as a piece of valiant tragedy without Courtney Walsh’s comic resistance for five balls.

Though celebrated, the dynamics of partnerships are seldom explored in depth. We chose to do so through two batsmen whose careers have been signposted by series-altering partnerships. Though Eden Gardens hyphenated Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman for a lifetime and beyond, it was a relationship forged over years through the Under-19 levels and at South Zone. Like many successful batting pairs, their tunes and rhythms were dissimilar, but what they had in common — resolve, mental toughness and the capacity to score big — mattered much more.

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