Opening credits

In fact,Dhoni has led in just four Tests without both. And those Tests marked the beginning of Indias fall. The first three were in the West Indies in 2011,where the then best Test team in the world toiled hard to register a 1-0 scoreline after Sehwag and Gambhir pulled out injured. The fourth occasion was during the following tour of England,in Nottingham. With both players injured,India lost by 329 runs. Never has Dhoni experienced playing without both at home. On Thursday morning,he will.

End,a new beginning

Come Mohali,with Sehwag joining Gambhir in the axed list,either Shikhar Dhawan or Ajinkya Rahane will open with Murali Vijay for the remaining two Tests against Australia. And with no more long-format games before the tour of South Africa at the end of the year,many believe that this is perhaps the end for Sehwag and Gambhir. And for an epoch in Indian cricket.

Gautam and Viru were the soul of the Indian team during its resurgence, says Aakash Chopra,former India opener and a former Delhi teammate. They will be missed,but its now time to move on and find those who can replace them. We wont know who can fill their shoes till someone tries them.

Before and after,many have.

In the 1980s,a decade that began with the retirement of one half of Indias then most successful opening duo,Chetan Chauhan,India tried 13 different partners with the other,Sunil Gavaskar. But their 3010 runs and 10 century stands would take a lot longer to be overhauled. A quarter of a century,to be precise. In the 90s,India had as many as 15 different openers. And before Gambhir returned to the squad in 2008,the count of unsuccessfuls in the new millennium went up to 18. Then something just clicked.

During the three-year period when India first became contenders for the top rank in Tests to the time they drew a Test series in South Africa the era falling roughly between the Decembers of 2008 and 2010 Gambhir and Sehwag notched up eight century stands. Out of those Tests,India won six,drew one and lost just one. Overall,they had 11 hundred-plus stands and 4412 partnership runs the fifth most on the all-time opening pairs list,only behind Greenidge-Haynes 6482,Hayden-Langer 5655,Cook-Strauss 4711 and Atapattu-Jayasuriya 4469.

Its hard to tell just why they were so good. They were incredible openers,of course. But they also got a longer run together than most before them, says Chopra. It is quite like the chicken-and-egg paradox. They were good enough to get a long run and the long run was good enough to keep them scoring. That long run,however,paid little dividend towards the end.

Twenty-five innings separated Sehwag and Gambhirs last two century stands from Centurion 2010 to Ahmedabad 2012. Centurion will have to be revisited again to mark the last time both made fifty-plus scores in the same match. Gambhir went 40 innings without a century before being replaced by Vijay,who took just three innings to break the jinx. Sehwag,before his axing,scored just one in 40. Chopra hopes that the replacement can do a Vijay.

Fifteen months at least. We have to give the likes of Shikhar and Vijay enough time to deliver, says Chopra. The selectors are doing well to back them by not introducing another opener in place of Sehwag. And what are his expectations? Its hard to say, he says. The topic of openers has historically been a sensitive one in India. For exactly half a decade recently,it wasnt.