The Indian cricket team has been blessed with many superstar players over the years, no matter which format is being talked about. While Sachin Tendulkar is widely recognised as the greatest cricketer there ever has been, not just in India but even on the international circuit, a poll conducted by Wisden India saw the Master Blaster being pipped by Rahul Dravid as the finest Indian batsman in Test cricket in the last 50 years.
It was a tough battle between Dravid and Tendulkar but in the end, it was the former who edged the Little Master by a fine margin to take the crown.
A total of 11,400 fans took part in the poll that saw David ending up with 52% votes while Tendulkar got 48%. ‘The Wall’, as Dravid is known among his fans, was trailing Tendulkar till the afternoon but much like his innings in the whites, the poll saw him show immaculate resilience in beating Sachin.
The likes of Sunil Gavaskar and Virat Kohli were also included in the poll in the earlier stages. While Tendulkar saw off Kohli, Dravid got the better of Gavskar to find a place in the final.
A third-place playoff was also held between Kohli and Gavaskar where the latter restricted the former at the No. 4 spot to claim the third-place himself.
Each of Gavaskar, Kohli, Dravid and Tendulkar have their special place in the longest format of the game. While Tendulkar is the batsman with the most number of runs (15,921) to his name, Dravid isn’t far off in the list as he occupies 4th spot with 13288 runs.
