Indian batting great Rahul Dravid narrowly beat his former teammate Sachin Tendulkar in Wisden India's poll for the greatest Indian Test batsman of all time.
The poll was taken on Facebook and Dravid got 52 percent of the 11,400 votes that came in from fans. It started with a pool of 16 Indian batsmen and came down to a final four of Dravid against Sunil Gavaskar and Tendulkar against Virat Kohli.
Gavaskar managed to later beat Kohli in a closely contested third-place play-off.
"Dravid ended with 52 per cent of the total votes – as many as 11,400 fans took part in the poll for the final – despite trailing at 42 per cent on Tuesday morning. Much like Dravid batted during his playing career, he dug in and fought back in the poll, eventually crossing the line with a decent lead at the very end," said Wisden India in its report.
Sachin and Dravid are the two highest-scoring batsmen for India in Test cricket. While Sachin, who played 200 Tests between 1989 and 2013, stands atop with his tally of 15921 runs at 53.78, Dravid, who played 163 Tests between 1996 and 2012, stands second with 13265 runs at 52.63. The two maintain the spot in terms of centuries as well - 51 and 36, respectively. Despite the better run tally, fans opted Dravid probably for his ability to score under tougher conditions.
Dravid averaged 53.13 in 63 Tests (scoring 5420 runs) he played in SENA nations and in West Indies, while Sachin averaged 50.90 in 73 appearances (scoring 6007 runs) at similar venues. In fact, Dravid has the most runs and averages the most in a winning cause at these venues - 1135 runs ay 70.93 in 10 matches - among all Indians.
Besides the two, there were 14 other Indians who were part of the online poll and Sunil Gavaskar and Virat Kohli were the other two semifinalists. While Dravid beat Gavaskar, Sachin beat Kohli. Eventually, Gavaskar beat the present Indian skipper to finish third.
(with IANS inputs)
