Rahul Dravid - Best ever Batsman from Subcontinent

[silentstriker]

Dravid is and will probably be the most accomplished sub-continental batsman by the end of his career (and vastly under-rated, especially by me for many years) but I think Sachin is the best. Dravid strikes me as somone who knows his game inside-out, what he can do/can't do, etc. and because he's had to work so hard to get to where he is, is better equipped to deal with altering his game as he gets older, less physically able, etc. Sachin is the naturally-talented one who is struggling to adjust his game as he gets older because he's never had to previously. But at their respective peaks, I'd take Sachin.

Agreed.

For me, its

1) Sachin
2) Gavaskar
3) Dravid
4) Hanif (why has no one mentioned him?)
5) Miadad
6) Inzamam

The reason Gavaskar edges out Dravid is because the opening slot is a tougher place to bat IMO. And Gavaskar was arguably the greatest opening bat of all time, regardless of country.

 

[SJS]

1) Sachin
2) Gavaskar
3) Dravid
4) Hanif (why has no one mentioned him?)
5) Miadad
6) Inzamam

\.

Ever heard of someone called Zaheer Abbas. You dont think he should be SOMEWHERE in that list?

Forget the subcontinent but believe me he was the best batsman to come out of Pakistan in the last 40 years.

 

[benchmark00]

Salamuddin Janissar is the best for mine.

 

[Beleg]

The best subcontinental batsmen I have seen:

1. Dravid
2. Tendulkar
3. Inzamam

4. Miandad
5. Azhar/Ganguly/De Silva
6. Yousuf/Sehwag/Jayasuria/Sangakara

 

[steds]

Uttam Sarkar.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Sachin Tendulkar is already the greatest Sub-Continent batsman of all time, but it's open to debate. Over the next 5 or 6 years he will return to his best, break all records (except The Don's average) and there will no longer be any debate.

 

[Lokhtar]

Tendulkar and then Gavaskar. The rest are playing catch up.

 

[Anil]

Dravid is and will probably be the most accomplished sub-continental batsman by the end of his career (and vastly under-rated, especially by me for many years) but I think Sachin is the best. Dravid strikes me as somone who knows his game inside-out, what he can do/can't do, etc. and because he's had to work so hard to get to where he is, is better equipped to deal with altering his game as he gets older, less physically able, etc. Sachin is the naturally-talented one who is struggling to adjust his game as he gets older because he's never had to previously. But at their respective peaks, I'd take Sachin.

agreed...but the way you are describing dravid, don't you think sunny g was an even more technically refined version of dravid?

 

[Xuhaib]

Ever heard of someone called Zaheer Abbas. You dont think he should be SOMEWHERE in that list?

Forget the subcontinent but believe me he was the best batsman to come out of Pakistan in the last 40 years.

I believe he is the most over rated batsman ever to play for Pakistan, I will pick Anwar, Malik and Yousuf over him.

 

[Xuhaib]

The best subcontinental batsmen I have seen:

1. Dravid
2. Tendulkar
3. Inzamam

4. Miandad
5. Azhar/Ganguly/De Silva
6. Yousuf/Sehwag/Jayasuria/Sangakara

 

[Rajeev]

The best subcontinental batsmen I have seen:

1. Dravid
2. Tendulkar
3. Inzamam

4. Miandad
5. Azhar/Ganguly/De Silva
6. Yousuf/Sehwag/Jayasuria/Sangakara

Thats a fantastic list

 

[marc71178]

Owais Shah, surely?!

 

[superkingdave]

was going to vote yes, then i saw Ch00baka voted no.

 

[SJS]

I believe he is the most over rated batsman ever to play for Pakistan, I will pick Anwar, Malik and Yousuf over him.

Its your opinion...thats okay. Tell me, have you ever seen him bat (in his active days that is). If not, how did you ever come to the conclusion that he was over rated?

By the way, many Indians of my generation rated him an equal and many others as better than Gavaskar. One may or may not agree with THAT but you dont get a higher compliment for batsmanship and certainly not from an Indian of a generation that revered gavaskar and most certainly not from a generation that was not ...er...exactly...er...positively inclined towards anything from the otherside of our Western borders.

 

[FRAZ]

The best subcontinental batsmen I have seen:

1. Dravid
2. Tendulkar
3. Inzamam

4. Miandad
5. Azhar/Ganguly/De Silva
6. Yousuf/Sehwag/Jayasuria/Sangakara

Beleg !!! Brother please do NOT mention this thing to any one else please. Ganguly is a good ODI specialist to have but not good enough to be mentioned in the current Indian side and please PALEESE ... dude
(which area of Lahore do you live in BTW).

 

[Anil]

By the way, many Indians of my generation rated him an equal and many others as better than Gavaskar. One may or may not agree with THAT but you dont get a higher compliment for batsmanship and certainly not from an Indian of a generation that revered gavaskar and most certainly not from a generation that was not ...er...exactly...er...positively inclined towards anything from the otherside of our Western borders.

that's certainly a magnificent compliment for "zed" abbas, but one he doesn't deserve.... he was a stylish batsman and a pretty good one, but clearly not in the same league(as in the same ballpark) as sunny....in any case miandad, as much of a ***** as he is, is the greatest ever pakistani batsman, then there are others in that list like hanif mohammed and inzi who are ahead of abbas....in fact i would've put malik ahead of him as well had he not been tainted with the match-fixing controversy....

 

[SJS]

that's certainly a magnificent compliment for "zed" abbas, but one he doesn't deserve.... he was a stylish batsman and a pretty good one, but clearly not in the same league(as in the same ballpark) as sunny....in any case miandad, as much of a ***** as he is, is the greatest ever pakistani batsman, then there are others in that list like hanif mohammed and inzi who are ahead of abbas....in fact i would've put malik ahead of him as well had he not been tainted with the match-fixing controversy....

Again, its an opinion.

Its difficult to compare batsmen unless the difference in criteria are massive.

- One may have better strokes(Sachin) and the other may have better temprament(Steve waugh).
- One may be graceful and great to watch (Hobbs) and the other may be trifle tough on the eyes but great on the score sheet (Bradman) .
- One may play the strokes correctly (Gavaskar) and the other may add bits of his own genius to them (Vishwanath).
- One may be performing but not helping the side win (Lara) and the other may be performing in a winning cause almost always (Ponting).

At the end of the day. Its difficult to compare.

It also must be said that some are more glamorous than others and tend to be glorified more than those that are not. Examples of this are legion.

- Compton versus Edrich
- Tendulkar versus Dravid (for a long time)
- Yuvraj versus Laxman
- Wasim vesus Waqar
- Bedi versus Prasanna

Finally its an opinion and these are always going to be subjective. History does slightly (I use the word with care), just slightly, better than people 'living' in the times. I suspect history is never going to put Salim Malik and Zaheer Abbas on the same page (any scandals notwithstanding) and i am surprised that anyone who has seen enough of both would do so even without the slightly better light of hindsight.

 

[honestbharani]

The best batsman from the subcontinent that I have seen overall would be Dravid. But then again, neither his nor Sachin's career is over yet. And I really didn't see much of Miandad except the odd match in the early 90s.

 

[SJS]

On the subject of Zaheer.

He was easily the best batsman EXCEPT, according to some accounts, against express fast bowling. On the easy paced wickets of India and Pakistan and even in England, he was a murderer of medium to medium fast bowling and one of the finest batsmen against spin bowling. His footwork against the Indian spinners in all the series and against Underwood during his massive 274 (I have seen it again and again on TV) was amazing. He would just walk out to the pitch of the ball and drive on either side of the wicket.

Lloyd, in selecting a world XI from his contemporaries chose only three non-West Indian batsmen. Two of them were openers (Gavaskar and Boycott) and for the third place he short listed two Australians(Chappell brothers) and two Pakistanis (Zaheer and Majid). He finally chose the elder Chappell but it shows the regard he had for Zaheer and I doubt if that would have been the case if Zaheer was useless against fast bowlers.

Miandad writes :
Zaheer is probably the most purely talented batsman so far produced by Pakistan. When he was in rythm he was second to none.
The other three batsmen he rates at the top amongst his contempraries from his own country are Majid, Mushtaq and Asif.

Of Malik he writes :
Saleem Malik was another highly talented Pakistani batsman and one of the sewwtest timers of a cricket ball, but throughout his career he remained shaky against genuine pace.

Imran writes :
Zaheer not only scored masses of runs, but the manner of execution was superb. He looked the complete stroke maker on the slow wickets of Pakistan and he destroyed the Indian spinners.....

His timing and placement of shots was absolutely breathtaking and he rarely bothered to loft the ball. He looked so utterly safe and his improvised shots - whipping a ball on the off stump through the legside - carried an air of inevitability about them.

Our careers have run more or less parallel and I consider Zaheer the best attacking batsman in the world on slow wickets against spin and medium pace. Unlike Richards he doesnt get bored with piling on the runs and he keeps the ball on the ground. He plays very close to the body at the moment of impact and his reach off the backfoot is enormous.

He played one of the best shots I've ever seen....during a test against India - he went to drive a ball from Kapilthat wasnt quite upto him, so he checked his shot and played a foeward defensive shot. The ball rocketed through the cover boundary even though he played it defensively, his timing was so much in tune !

He further adds :
His range of strokes, timing and concentration were wonderful. Yet.....his apparent inability to battle it out in pressure situations meant he cant be ranked above Viv Richards and Ian Chappell.

 

[Xuhaib]

Its your opinion...thats okay. Tell me, have you ever seen him bat (in his active days that is). If not, how did you ever come to the conclusion that he was over rated?

By the way, many Indians of my generation rated him an equal and many others as better than Gavaskar. One may or may not agree with THAT but you dont get a higher compliment for batsmanship and certainly not from an Indian of a generation that revered gavaskar and most certainly not from a generation that was not ...er...exactly...er...positively inclined towards anything from the otherside of our Western borders.

No i have never seen him bat so you can say that i am making a harsh judgement. His record against Aus and WI is not very flashy and thats the main reason i dont rate him very highly in tests. For ODI's i rate him equal to Javaid and Anwar.