Is Dravid slipping to #4

[Gambit]

in the Indian batting pantheon? He was among the top 3, with SMG and SRT being the other two, but his rather pathetic form over the last 2 years, the rise of Veeru's flashing blade and fast changing public perception of Dravid seems to indicate that Sehwag and not Dravid will be remembered along with SMG and SRT as one of the top 3 Indian bats of all time.

[King Tendulkar]

No Dravid is an Indian batting legend and always will be. It does not matter if her now scores 50 ducks on the spin The big 4 will be Sunny, Sachin, Dravid and Sehwag

[Mr. Wicket]

Nope. Big 5, not big 4. Vijay Merchant deserves inclusion.

[fineleg]

No Dravid is an Indian batting legend and always will be.

dsr, Absolutely, he has been the fulcrum of Indian batting in Test cricket - he provided the support and stroke makers revolved around him. PS: Havent seen Vijay Merchant, so will have to accept Salil's word for it.

[Mr. Wicket]

Most of us haven't. But he excelled at test cricket briefly, despite his best years being lost to the war, and playing most of it when several years past his best. In first class cricket and in England, he stood head and shoulders above his peers to the point that comparisons with Bradman ensued. The beginning of the lineage of great Bombay batsmen.

[DomainK]

I havent seen Merchant, but from what I have read and heard, he was special. Sunny will remain India's best test bat ever. I would put SRT at 2. Dravid has been a great batsman, but he was always one dimensional. Sometimes attack is necessary. Some times you have to take the bowlers on to unsettle them, to disturb the field setting, to force the captain and the bowlers out of their comfort zones, to make them think differently. Dravid, on a few occasions, allowed the oppositions to settle into a comfort zone and dry up the runs and take wickets. Attack is the best form of defense and that, Dravid always lacked. As stated in the "Time for a joke" thread, if Dravid had batted longer, he probably would have handed the match to England. For that very reason, I would put Viru above Dravid.

[Ram]

Wonder what this ranking will look like, the next time Viru has a slump. Exactly 12 months ago, would anyone have rated Sehwag over Dravid? Dravid has played some monumentally important innings for India in tests. His efforts were not just great exhibition of batting, but represented the changing face of Indian cricket. It wont too inaccurate to suggest that many of our performances today, were built on the solid foundation laid by guys like Sachin, Dravid and Kumble. All things considered, I would still rate Dravid above Sehwag, atleast for now.

[bharat297]

Wonder what this ranking will look like' date=' the next time Viru has a slump. [b']Exactly 12 months ago, would anyone have rated Sehwag over Dravid? Dravid has played some monumentally important innings for India in tests. His efforts were not just great exhibition of batting, but represented the changing face of Indian cricket. It wont too inaccurate to suggest that many of our performances today, were built on the solid foundation laid by guys like Sachin, Dravid and Kumble. All things considered, I would still rate Dravid above Sehwag, atleast for now.

But in the past 12 months Sehwag has played some monumental innings aswell.

[Rajan]

i dont know why Mohinder Amarnath and GR Vishvanath are considered in the top 5 indian batsmen! they played against the most fearsome attacks and delivered.in fact GRV has contributed more to indian winning causes than SMG(plz check his stats in winning matches, we never lost when he scored a hundred, i think). Amarnath had handled lightning pace and quality spin better in some series than Gavaskar. he was wronged by selectors for the mistakes of his father.Vijay Hazare too is a great indian batsman. 1.Merchant 2.Gavaskar 3.Vishvanath 4.Amarnath(i know i will be hauled but i dont want to argue with people who have not seen/read or heard about his innings and just read stats, sorry. he is the gutsiest indian batsman i have ever seen) 5.SRT 6.Dravid 7.Hazare 8.Sehwag 9.Vengsarkar(handled Patrick patterson when he was most ferocious, Imran, Marshall, holding, roberts, Sylvestor clarke), he was the best in the world for an 18 month period in the mid 80's. 10.Vijay Manjrekar(was dravid like)

[punjabi_khota]

i dont know why Mohinder Amarnath and GR Vishvanath are considered in the top 5 indian batsmen! they played against the most fearsome attacks and delivered.in fact GRV has contributed more to indian winning causes than SMG(plz check his stats in winning matches, we never lost when he scored a hundred, i think). Amarnath had handled lightning pace and quality spin better in some series than Gavaskar. he was wronged by selectors for the mistakes of his father.Vijay Hazare too is a great indian batsman. 1.Merchant 2.Gavaskar 3.Vishvanath 4.Amarnath(i know i will be hauled but i dont want to argue with people who have not seen/read or heard about his innings and just read stats, sorry. he is the gutsiest indian batsman i have ever seen) 5.SRT 6.Dravid 7.Hazare 8.Sehwag 9.Vengsarkar(handled Patrick patterson when he was most ferocious, Imran, Marshall, holding, roberts, Sylvestor clarke), he was the best in the world for an 18 month period in the mid 80's. 10.Vijay Manjrekar(was dravid like)

Most people talk about SRT being the second best ever after Bradman and he is 5th on your list just for Indians..where does he stand overall then..like 10-20 ?

[Guest dada_rocks]

Le me abuse Dilip Vengsarkar for denying sehwag show to the billion in India

[Lord]

Le me abuse Dilip Vengsarkar for denying sehwag show to the billion in India

i'm with u

[Anakin]

I never followed the idea that couple of bad years diminish what someone has achieved for a long time. What's worse is when people try to use that to get some one dropped

[Sachinism]

Dravid will always be considered a legend of Indian cricket. No matter how many bad performances he gives now. The amount of times he's been there and saved the team can't be forgotten

[Cricketics]

Le me abuse Dilip Vengsarkar for denying sehwag show to the billion in India

i really feel for those who died or wanted to see sehwag for the last time before they die, during that season when he was dropped for england tour and stuff. btw, why only blame vengsarkar, i think the whole selection panel that time, barring may be one guy who might have voted for sehwag's inclusion...almost everyone voted against sehwag inclusion. the whole selection panel

[Ram]

But in the past 12 months Sehwag has played some monumental innings aswell.

That is correct, but atleast in my book, he is still not in Dravid's plane. Of course, if he keeps producing the sort of innings' that he has been doing for a few more occasions, I am open to changing my opinion. But plainly, the kind of innings that epitomize what Dravid stands for – Headingly 2002, Adelaide 2003, Multan 2004 - None of us have seen such batsmanship before or since.

[Sachinism]

You guys can't blame the selectors for dropping him, he was terribly out of form and then when he got picked, he was kinda lucky, but since then he's been on fire

[The Outsider]

i dont know why Mohinder Amarnath and GR Vishvanath are considered in the top 5 indian batsmen! they played against the most fearsome attacks and delivered.in fact GRV has contributed more to indian winning causes than SMG(plz check his stats in winning matches, we never lost when he scored a hundred, i think). Amarnath had handled lightning pace and quality spin better in some series than Gavaskar. he was wronged by selectors for the mistakes of his father.Vijay Hazare too is a great indian batsman. 1.Merchant 2.Gavaskar 3.Vishvanath 4.Amarnath(i know i will be hauled but i dont want to argue with people who have not seen/read or heard about his innings and just read stats, sorry. he is the gutsiest indian batsman i have ever seen) 5.SRT 6.Dravid 7.Hazare 8.Sehwag 9.Vengsarkar(handled Patrick patterson when he was most ferocious, Imran, Marshall, holding, roberts, Sylvestor clarke), he was the best in the world for an 18 month period in the mid 80's. 10.Vijay Manjrekar(was dravid like)

I would say that the above list while listing some of the genuine greats of Indian cricket is a tad biased towards the past. Not that I don't consider Viswanath, Amarnath, Hazare, Vengsarkar, and Manjrekar as superb batsmen in their own rights specially Amarnath who used to be a true hero for me as a kid when I used to await articles on him in Sportstar and Cricket Samrat but leaving out Azharuddin or Laxman for Hazare, Vengsarkar, and Manjrekar doesn't seem right to me. The manner in which Laxman has dominated the best team of his generation is peerless and some of Azharuddin's innings are just not possible to replicate by any other batsman, including Tendulkar or Sehwag on song and that's a big big statement. His century at Lords, 190 at Auckland, and centuries at Johannesburg and Calcutta against South Africa were paintings on a canvas rather than words on paper. Hazare and Manjrekar were important cogs in the overall development of Indian cricket and Vengsarkar was as good a batsman as any for a couple of years, but really their achievements cannot compare to Azhar and Laxman. And it's not that Azhar and Laxman were not a good eye candy either.

[Predator_05]

in the Indian batting pantheon? He was among the top 3, with SMG and SRT being the other two, but his rather pathetic form over the last 2 years, the rise of Veeru's flashing blade and fast changing public perception of Dravid seems to indicate that Sehwag and not Dravid will be remembered along with SMG and SRT as one of the top 3 Indian bats of all time.

No. 2 bad years shouldn't overshadow 10 great years. BUT i do think Sehwag will pass him soon. Ever since he made his comeback in AUS, he has played some outrageous knocks - particularly in the 2nd innings, which formed a big hole in his profile earlier. The 151, the two 90's in the last series vs AUS, and that match-turning 83 in the GREAT CHASE. He has already made more 50+ 2nd innings scores this year than he did during the rest of his test career. If he keeps this up, he will definitely pass Dravid. At the moment he has only played about half the test matches Dravid has played so you can't really compare them.

[Chandan]

I wonder where Gambit got that idea from, about Dravid slipping to #4! And Ganguly is not even in top 10 test batsmen for India?