Steve Waugh vs Rahul Dravid

[PlayerComparisons]

.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Battle of the squinters

 

[trundler]

Dravid ezpz.

 

[BazBall21]

Haha. Always a good matchup this. Two tough nut all-timers. I go Waugh by a small margin.

 

[Starfighter]

That's a tricky one.

 

[Arachnodouche]

Steve Waugh was the premier batsman in world cricket for a good while and this while Lara and Tendulkar were in their prime. Dravid never scaled those heights.

 

[TheJediBrah]

As a player it's definitely Waugh, with what he did as captain of that team taking them to the peak. He was ruthless. Also underrated white-ball bowler early in his career.

But assuming we're only talking about their batting it's got to be close. My gut is telling me Waugh did better against better bowling but Dravid's record away and in England especially as an Indian is special

 

[Burgey]

Lot of mutual respect between these blokes.

 

[Chrish]

Voted for Dravid but wouldn’t argue with someone over choosing Waugh..

 

[honestbharani]

Its very difficult to pick tbh. I went with Waugh because I think his body of work for the 90s is amazing but Waugh failed a lot in the 80s and it seems unfair to forget that part of his career. But I just went with Waugh because, even though I hate the phrase, he is one of those you wanna bat for your life.

 

[subshakerz]

Waugh. I think Dravid would have needed to be better in SA and Australia to overtake Waugh for me.

 

[subshakerz]

Dravid in Australia and SA averaged 41 and 29 respectively and these were the teams with the best pace attacks in his time for most of his career. In both countries, he only has one out of four series in which he scored a ton and did well, besides which he struggled in three other series. In Australia's case, he never did well against McWarne either.

 

[Xuhaib]

Steve Waugh.

Waugh 93-01 is just an unreal batsman

 

[Zinzan]

Dravid by a slim but clear margin for me. I always feared him more than Tendulkar in Tests in NZ.

 

[sumantra]

Rahul Dravid, clearly.

 

[CricAddict]

I am surprised Dravid got quite a few votes. Very clearly Waugh for me.

 

[cnerd123]

Waugh never had to survive his own bowling attack, Dravid never got to feast off his

Easily Dravid

 

[ankitj]

I am surprised Dravid got quite a few votes. Very clearly Waugh for me.

Same. Waugh has always been rated higher than Dravid on this forum in various lists voted on here.

Around 2006-07, I would have had no hesitation in ranking Dravid ahead of Waugh. But by the time Dravid's career ended that changed for me.

 

[BazBall21]

Dravid in Australia and SA averaged 41 and 29 respectively and these were the teams with the best pace attacks in his time for most of his career. In both countries, he only has one out of four series in which he scored a ton and did well, besides which he struggled in three other series. In Australia's case, he never did well against McWarne either.

Makes sense Waugh averages a lot more away from home against better than median attacks than Dravid. Dravid is possibly the greatest player of lateral movement of recent times but Aus/SA/SL away was a struggle and he struggled at home to Aus/SA too.

 

[subshakerz]

Waugh never had to survive his own bowling attack, Dravid never got to feast off his

Easily Dravid

Waugh has two series where he delivered against high quality SA attacks (93 and 97), two series where he delivered against high quality WI attacks (95 and 99), and two series where he delivered against high quality Pakistan attacks (94 and 98).

Oh, and all of these are away series, I am not even counting series at home where he delivered, of which there are several.

There shouldn't be any doubt that Waugh is the one between the two who has better delivered against quality attacks.