Technically best batsmen from India of all-time

[Number]

Was Sachin's footwork sounder than Drvaid's and his judgement in leaving balls?Who had better footwork and a straighter bat?To me I agree with your verdict .Was not Tendulkar vulnerable to the short ball ?Why was dravid more effective in a Crissie?

Dravid's front foot defense was the most formidable. So in crisis situation, he would switch to that mode and then his concentration ability was very good. Overall SRT's technique I rate as the best because technique covers both stroke play and defense, no one as close to perfect as him in both.

[HippoSucks]

Merchant and Tendulkar.

[zep1706]

Suresh Raina.

[Topslip]

Dravid and gavaskar

That poll result was expected--no shortage of sachin bhakts

[div]

Dravid didn't have great technique when he started out.

When he started out, Dravid used to crouch a lot more in his stance, with his head falling over a bit towards the off side. His bat, coming from the gully region, forced him to make a huge loop at the top of the backlift. Both the backlift and the falling head allowed him to punish anything that was even marginally on his legs. His wide backlift also made him a good cutter of the ball, provided there was width on offer. On the flip side, it meant fewer front-foot strokes on the off side. In fact, mid-off was rarely brought into play. During one of our recent chats, Dravid said that because he grew up playing on jute matting wickets, he became a good back-foot player and also strong on the legs, for the bounce allowed him to work the balls, even the ones pitched within the stumps, towards the on side. He was a bottom-hand dominated player, he said.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/557698.html

[CG]

That poll result was expected--no shortage of sachin bhakts

:facepalm: Sachin had the best technique ,although each has his own .But if you want the perfect way to play look at sachin there were no pre meditated movements or huge trigger movements ,his ability to judje length was what made him special as he would react to ball rather than premeditate. Its one of most difficult things to do .

[div]

^ every one use trigger movement against genuine fast bowlers or on pacer friendly pitches. http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/727793.html

[Precambrian]

No brainer really. Tendulkar without a doubt. Has thrived on all types of pitches till he just grew old. Retained the core aspects of his batting although his stance, backlift, bat weight etc all underwent fundamental shifts through his career.

[CG]

^ every one use trigger movement against genuine fast bowlers or on pacer friendly pitches. http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/727793.html

I mentioned huge trigger movements.Everybody has some trigger movements.Sachin for most of career played on judgement of his length as is taught.

[vvvslaxman]

Sunny. His 96 is a testimony to how to play spin on a minefield.

[zep1706]

Did not see Gavaskar live, in the last 20 years, Tendulkar easily. Dravid was exceptional in playing swing, but everywhere else Tendulkar was better.

[govinda]

sach

[Googly]

Sunny Gavaskar

[AmreekanDesi]

Why is this even a question. From a pure technique perspective, Rahul is probably the greatest of all time!

[bharat297]

I think, if you were teaching a young kid how to bat, you would follow Sachin. Absolutely textbook in just about every respect.

[Khalpat]

One of the shot which Dravid plays most of the time was jumping on the short pitch delivery and playing it down, the ball goes near his stump or remains at the bating crease and he starts running which 90% of the time is denied by the batsman at other end. Technically poor shot, Sachin or Sunny would leave the ball. Dravid , head is not very still while playing Drive shot. For being Technically perfect your head should be still, just look at how Tendulkar's head is still when he hits a cover Drive or Straight Drive. Look at the winning shot Dravid played in Adelaide test, which has been shown many times he hits a wide delivery pulls of his cap and starts running in joy. If you look closely it was wide ball and Dravid while hitting a cut shot do not have both his feet in parallel and straight line, I do not think you will ever find Sachin Tendulkar's both feet in different directions while playing cut shot and also basic technical flaw your right feet should be at off stump which Sachin and Sunny Gavaskar always had or for that matter Sanjay Manjrekar also. Dravid was the best defensive batsman of all time but technically, Sachin was way ahead.

good observation.I feel dravid's forte was his improvisation and use of wrists and above all mental temperament.In pure technique Sachin may have edged even Sunny.What should be the principal criteria in judging techniqe-defence or attacking strokes?Another aspect is footwork and balance.In that light Sachin may have been the best of the 3.Who do you rtae technicaly higher between Sachin and Gavaskar? good post.Sorry for late reply.

I think your question was for me. Sorry for replying late. See, while comparing two players technically we need to be sure what exactly is the definition of technical batsman. Going by the old books of technical batting, one of the basic thing is, if the ball has pitched around good length or more towards being over pitched a solid technical batsman will play it with front foot and if it is on the shorter side, technically batsman will have to go on backfoot. There are some shots which should be played only on front foot like cover drive, straight drive etc and some which should be played only on backfoot like pull shots etc. If we consider this aspect then leave aside Gavaskar even Vishwanath, Vengsarkar, Ravi Shastri, Manjrekar all were better player then Sachin in technical aspect as we all have seen Sachin pulling the ball even on front foot on some occasion and the pull shot has gone towards long on rather than mid wicket. Having said that we will have to consider the change in game which happened after mid 90's and scoring run became the top most priority rather than staying on the wicket. I will ignore this portion may be some older cricket pundits will not. If you consider this aspect then surely Gavaskar was better (but be sure if you consider this then you will not at all like Kohli, AB etc.) For all other things like moving towards the pitch of ball, keeping your head still, proper foot movement, not playing away from body etc both Sachin and Gavaskar are equal. But having said that if we consider improvisation and coming up with your own technically perfect shot which were not orthodox like the way Sachin played Ashley Giles and Shane Warne in late 90's and early 00's or playing un orthodox sweep shots or playing the upper cut. I will keep Sachin overall ahead of Gavaskar. Technicality should evolve with time. Going forward people will show their kids the videos of Sachin and teach them see you can play agresivelly yet you can be technically correct also. Sachin for Me.

[Raghav_12]

That poll result was expected--no shortage of sachin bhakts

Actually it is other way. Gavaskar and Dravid together have got almost as many votes as Sachin did is clear indication that people explore all possible ways to undermine Sachin. Anybody who understands cricket even a bit would know that technically best has to be Sachin.

[helperononline]

its dravid for me

[cricketpitch]

Technically you have to hand it to Gavaskar and Sachin. Rahul was brilliant but he struggled in SA and Australia (Except for one good series). He played swing well but was not that fluent against bounce. Sachin mastered all the conditions comparatively. He is the only batsman to average at least 40 in all countries he played in tests.

[jusarrived]

Overally it has to be Tendulkar , but when the ball swings Dravid was 2 notches above any batsmen I have seen