Who is India's best ever Test cricketer?

[G.I.Joe]

Never heard of these guys before, but Jaideep Varma, Jatin Thakkar and Sreeram Ramachandran have put together an impressive looking effort at ranking the best Indian Test cricketers of all time here - The HoldingWilley Report: All Time Test Top 20 (India, 1932-2008)

1) Rahul Dravid
2) Sunil Gavaskar
3) Virender Sehwag
4) Sachin Tendulkar
5) Kapil Dev
6) Bishen Bedi-BS Chandrasekhar-EAS Prasanna (as one bowling unit)
7) GR Vishwanath
8) Anil Kumble
9) Vinoo Mankad
10) VVS Laxman
11) Sourav Ganguly
12) Md. Azharuddin
13) Dilip Vengsarkar
14) Mohinder Amarnath
15) Vijay Hazare
16) Subhash Gupte
17) Polly Umrigar
18) Javagal Srinath

Their player profiles seem highly opinionated (I don't agree with many of their assessments) and interesting; if not for anything but the recollections of memorable performances by each of the players ranked above by them.

EDIT: Cast your vote in the poll, please.

 

[silentstriker]

1. Anil Kumble
2. Tendulkar
3. Kapil Dev
4. Sunil Gavaskar
5. Rahul Dravid

If its on talent, then the list would be:

1. Tendulkar
2. Kapil Dev
3. Sunil Gavaskar
4. Rahul Dravid
5. Anil Kumble

I dare anyone to tell me another player who has won more Test matches for India than Anil Kumble has. If winning is the criteria, than it has to be Kumble.

For about fifteen years, if Kumble did well, India won. If he didn't, India lost. The equation was really that simple. He didn't do well overseas, thus we lost. When he didn't do well at home, we lost or drew. When he did well, we almost invariably won.

 

[Sanz]

I will have both Gavaskar and Kapil at No. 1 but since I have to pick 1, I picked Gavaskar because he is senior to Kapil.

 

[haroon510]

Tendulker.. infect he was one of the reason i watched indian matches.. other than them playing against pakistan..

 

[Evermind]

I find the games of Dravid, Gavaskar and Kumble a little too dull. I think a "best ever" cricketer should be someone the opposition fear, but also turns out to be a great ambassador for the game. Maybe Kumble satisfies the latter aspect, but definitely not Dravid or Gavaskar.

It was a tossup between Tendulkar and Kapil - I went with the latter.

 

[subshakerz]

I find the games of Dravid, Gavaskar and Kumble a little too dull. I think a "best ever" cricketer should be someone the opposition fear, but also turns out to be a great ambassador for the game. Maybe Kumble satisfies the latter aspect, but definitely not Dravid or Gavaskar.

It was a tossup between Tendulkar and Kapil - I went with the latter.

Dravid is a model of how a cricketer should act, never sledges, and has tremendous respect from the opposition, especially the Australians. Not as good as Tendulkar or Kapil, perhaps, but definitely a good ambassador for the sport.

 

[subshakerz]

1. 
   I dare anyone to tell me another player who has won more Test matches for India than Anil Kumble has. If winning is the criteria, than it has to be Kumble.
   
   For about fifteen years, if Kumble did well, India won. If he didn't, India lost. The equation was really that simple. He didn't do well overseas, thus we lost. When he didn't do well at home, we lost or drew. When he did well, we almost invariably won.

1. 
   
   Bowlers by their very nature are matchwinners, which gives him an advantage over batsman such as Tendulkar. Though I do value great bowlers a bit more than great batsmen, I think you should check Tendulkar and Gavaskar's standing among other batsmen and compare that to Kumble to get a proper idea of where they should be rated.

 

[Durham_CCC]

Sachin or Dravid.

 

[silentstriker]

Bowlers by their very nature are matchwinners, which gives him an advantage over batsman such as Tendulkar.

Yes, and that's why bowlers are better than batsmen.

 

[archie mac]

Because it was cricketer I went Dev because of his batting and bowling, not sure about his keeping

Batting though it would be Sachin and bowling Prassana (spelling) and keeping Engineer

 

[silentstriker]

Archie, you've probably seen them both live, why do you rate Engineer as a better keeper than Kirmani?

 

[Burgey]

Yes, and that's why bowlers are better than batsmen.

Bradman would disagree.

But it would be Kumble as a matchwinner imo, closely followed by Tendulkar and Drtavid.

 

[silentstriker]

Actually, considering some of the things he wrote and said, I bet he wouldn't.

A batsman would have to be good to be better than an average bowler, a good bowler is better than a good batsman, etc. So Bradman is obviously so much better than any bowler that he'd be better, but if a bowler was as far away from his competition as Bradman is from his, that bowler would be the better player.

 

[Top_Cat]

Agree with Kumble being India's greatest match-winner and for years was the barometer of how well they were doing. In the series when India killed the Aussies in 1998, everyone remembers the batting of Tendulkar/Azhar/Sidhu but what people tend to forget was that Kumble was at the top of his game too.

For sheer talent, though, Sachin. For achievement, Dravid.

 

[archie mac]

Archie, you've probably seen them both live, why do you rate Engineer as a better keeper than Kirmani?

I was quite young when I watched Engineer, and maybe he had a good day, but he took everything with elegance and seemed to have so much time, while when I watched Kirmani he dropped an easy catch and seemed a little slow behind the stumps, but he may have just been having an off day.

TV coverge in the 70s is pretty poor as compared to what we get now, still from what I have read the experts and the players are divided between them, with Kirmani coming out just in front overall but Engineer the much better batsman

 

[zaremba]

Voted for Tendulkar. But there's a very strong case to be made for both Gavaskar and Kapil.

Also Kumble I suppose - and I take the point about his match-winning record - but in evaluating him it's hard to ignore how (relatively) ineffectual he was away from home.

 

[Uppercut]

1. Anil Kumble
2. Tendulkar
3. Kapil Dev
4. Sunil Gavaskar
5. Rahul Dravid

If its on talent, then the list would be:

1. Tendulkar
2. Kapil Dev
3. Sunil Gavaskar
4. Rahul Dravid
5. Anil Kumble

I dare anyone to tell me another player who has won more Test matches for India than Anil Kumble has. If winning is the criteria, than it has to be Kumble.

For about fifteen years, if Kumble did well, India won. If he didn't, India lost. The equation was really that simple. He didn't do well overseas, thus we lost. When he didn't do well at home, we lost or drew. When he did well, we almost invariably won.

That's odd- India's greatest ever cricketer was a "step-and-fetch-it bloke"?

 

[adharcric]

Actually, considering some of the things he wrote and said, I bet he wouldn't.

A batsman would have to be good to be better than an average bowler, a good bowler is better than a good batsman, etc. So Bradman is obviously so much better than any bowler that he'd be better, but if a bowler was as far away from his competition as Bradman is from his, that bowler would be the better player.

By that standard, Tendulkar was a better batsman than Kumble was a bowler so he should be on par or ahead of him as a cricketer. Kumble was an absolute champion, but India's dependency on him to win tests home and abroad also says something about the quality of our other bowlers. On top of that, Kumble wouldn't have won those matches without batsmen like Tendulkar scoring runs, just as Tendulkar wouldn't have won those matches without bowlers like Kumble taking wickets. Look beyond the obvious and you'll see that batsmen are match-winners too. I can see why you'd take the bowler every time if you had to choose between a batsman and a bowler of equal quality but you're exaggerating the gap IMO. India have two batsmen in the Top 10 of all-time and another in the Top 20, whereas Kumble probably wouldn't even crack a Top 25 list for bowlers. I really admire Kumble but there's no way I'd put him down as India's greatest test cricketer.

1) Sachin Tendulkar
2) Sunil Gavaskar
3) Anil Kumble
4) Kapil Dev
5) Rahul Dravid

 

[silentstriker]

By that standard, Tendulkar was a better batsman than Kumble was a bowler so he should be on par or ahead of him as a cricketer.

Not by an enough of a margin.

 

[silentstriker]

That's odd- India's greatest ever cricketer was a "step-and-fetch-it bloke"?

A sad indictment on Indian cricket history - primary reason we rarely ever won outside the subcontinent.