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Who's better Dravid or Ponting
- Thread starter Geoffboycott
- Start date
Arachnodouche
International Captain
Not if the source of the other option is Virat Kohli, surely?
Arachnodouche
International Captain
Dravid also didn't have the luxury of Hayden-Langer before him. It's not an appropriate comparison really because Dravid had to drop sheet anchor half the time, at least when Sehwag wasn't giving them flying starts (and that's only since what..04?). Not saying he was capable of dominating attacks like Ponting anyway but the dynamics of the Indian team of the era demanded a different sort of player and he fit the bill to perfection.
Jono
Virat Kohli (c)
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Mike5181
International Captain
To be fair, Sehwag averaged close to 52 with a 80+ SR during Dravid's career, so that wasn't very often. Gambhir played 50 odd tests and had a record similar to Langer's as well. If you're going to play the better openers/worse openers card you could argue that the drop in quality when (Sehwag/Gambhir) weren't there was a lot bigger than (Hayden/Langer) considering they had guys like Katich, Slater, Taylor etc for periods.
Arachnodouche
International Captain
But you're ignoring the first 7-8 years of his career which is when he really made his mark abroad with those knocks in England and New Zealand. We didn't have decent openers then..that's almost half his career. I'm not comparing pedigrees here, but Dravid just didn't have the bedding in period that Ponting enjoyed. He was on the frontlines from the very beginning and he did a great job of it.
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50/50 call depending on personal opinion. Both were amazing in their respective primes and suffered from end of career decline in form and finished with similar averages/aggregate. if you had to decide on a better player out of these two it would depend on the bowling attack, conditions and situation- overall though, no obvious answer.
But to equate Dravid's ability to play spin to Ponting's as some ppl have here is incorrect . Against spin Dravid is far superior and at times murderous (see his treatment of Grame Swann during last series in England). Dravid had no obvious technical flaws in the way he played spin whereas ponting even in his peak had clear technical issues. I would rate Dravid's ability against spin only just below SRT/Lara. I would not be able to say the same for ponting who was not even the best player of spin in his own team (Hayden, Lehmann).
And to say that because Ponting did well against McGrath and warne in shield cricket automatically means that he would have played them well in international cricket is also incorrect. Graeme Hick took Shane Warne to the cleaners in a warm up game prior to the start of the 93 Ashes tour. Enough said.
But to equate Dravid's ability to play spin to Ponting's as some ppl have here is incorrect . Against spin Dravid is far superior and at times murderous (see his treatment of Grame Swann during last series in England). Dravid had no obvious technical flaws in the way he played spin whereas ponting even in his peak had clear technical issues. I would rate Dravid's ability against spin only just below SRT/Lara. I would not be able to say the same for ponting who was not even the best player of spin in his own team (Hayden, Lehmann).
And to say that because Ponting did well against McGrath and warne in shield cricket automatically means that he would have played them well in international cricket is also incorrect. Graeme Hick took Shane Warne to the cleaners in a warm up game prior to the start of the 93 Ashes tour. Enough said.
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Not that I believe Ponting would automatically dominate against McG either (one was McG's FC debut and the other was when he wasn't the finished article as a Test bowler) but, **** me, the Hick game was a warm-up where Warne was specifically told not to bowl his best stuff vs live FC matches between strong teams going balls out to win. Not even remotely the same thing.
The Sean
Cricketer Of The Year
Not deliberate crap, but it's pretty common knowledge that Warne was told not to show much beyond basic leg breaks in the tour matches before the first Test.
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You don't see the value in just having a roll against good opposition, lulling softies like Hick into a false sense of security? Seriously, both AB and Warne have come out and said exactly they did that, it's fact, not bias. Without checking, I believe Hick has said Warne's bowling was totally different in the Tests too.
TNT
Banned
I just find it funny that people try to use a silly argument that Ponting didn't face Warne and McGrath so that goes against him. Its just a stupid strawman argument that holds no credibility at all. Something that a 14 year old kid would say.
No they wouldn't. Most 14 year olds are too young to remember Warne and McGrath.
But seriously, do you not think that quality of opposition deserves to be considered when assessing an individual's performance? Can a century in Chittagong vs Bangladesh be equated to a century in Perth vs Australia? Why does cricinfo bother performing sub group analyses against bowling Attacks that are universally recognised as great when assessing a players career batting performance?
Firefighter
Banned
Punter by miles as the poll suggests.