Greg Chappell Vs Rahul Dravid - who was the better test match batsman?

[marc71178]

Classic example of a Trundlering. As everyone knows, to be a good metric of opinion, a thread of this type needs a poll which includes an irrelevant option

Clearly the irrelevant option in this case would be trundler.

 

[Coronis]

I rate Chappell as the 2nd best Australian bat of all time, Dravid as the 3rd best Indian bat.

 

[Burgey]

I have Ponting and of course TOTAB ahead of him, but he was a great player and belongs in the argument. Rare for a tall batsman to be so elegant.

 

[Slifer]

Greg Chappell is imo Australia's second best test batsman. Guy averages 40+ home and away vs all comers. That's as complete a record as you can get. Also, add to that his runs in wsc. Greg is an atg up there with the laras and vivs of the game. Dravid is a rung below.

 

[bagapath]

By a small margin, Greg Chappell

Dravid's poor record in SA and SL and a slightly weak record against Australia (which is almost compensated by two great knocks in Kolkata and Adelaide) pull him down a notch in my opinion. Greg Chappell was great against everyone, everywhere. Too bad he didn't play in India, but I guess that would not have mattered much to him considering his great record in Pakistan against better bowling units in similar pitch conditions.

 

[the big bambino]

Can't split them - both were the best batsman in their families

Chappell would still be if they were related.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Chappell by a small amount since he was better against the best attacks of his time. But these things are always hard to judge because dravid had a much longer career. If you take his stats for a comparable number of tests/years his numbers look way more complete than Chappell's.

After 11 years of cricket and 104 tests, Dravid averaged 59.4 with 40+ averages vs everyone everywhere except v SA at home. Absolutely obscene overseas numbers too... 15 of his tons away from home, averaged 56 in Australia, 88 in England, 64 in NZ, 42 in SA. Its interesting to think that his reputation would be even stronger than it is if he'd retired then for some reason. As it is, for his last 5 years he was still very good but had lots of middling series against the best attacks, which ironically were worse than some of the attacks he'd succeeded against at his peak.

 

[ankitj]

Dravid's overseas record is overrated. Other than England he didn't do well in any of the traditionally difficult places to travel for India.

Edit. Overrated only relative to the gold tier batsmen. Definitely one of the best among Indian batsmen over the decades.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Dravid's overseas record is overrated. Other than England he didn't do well in any of the traditionally difficult places to travel for India.

Edit. Overrated only relative to the gold tier batsmen. Definitely one of the best among Indian batsmen over the decades.

True, I'm just wondering how things would be if he'd had a comparable length of career to Chappell.

 

[Zinzan]

Both great on the eye, but Chappell slightly better in terms of aesthetics. In fact Chappell, Gower, Mark Waugh & Damien Martyn come a close 2nd to Martin Crowe as the most elegant bats I've seen.

 

[bagapath]

Both great on the eye, but Chappell slightly better in terms of aesthetics. In fact Chappell, Gower, Mark Waugh & Damien Martyn come a close 2nd to Martin Crowe as the most elegant bats I've seen.

All those names sound right. One will have to add Azhar, Laxman and the most elegant batsman ever, Brian Lara, to that very special list.

 

[Zinzan]

All those names sound right. One will have to add Azhar, Laxman and the most elegant batsman ever, Brian Lara, to that very special list.

I'll grant you Laxman. Escaped my mind, & should have been included.

As for Azhar, loved his wristyness but not quite in my top few, while I saw the great BCL more as flamboyant & domineering than elegant, even if he didn't lack elegance.

 

[social]

Chappell averaged over 50 at a time when very few did and against some of the greatest bowlers in history in far less batting friendly conditions

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Man, it was great seeing Bishop bowling with some venom.

And a young Jerome Taylor (I believe this was his debut series).

Great vid of Dravid 'The Wall' getting ruffled up

 

[jimmy101]

Couldn't possibly be Jerome Taylor. He debuted in Tests in 2003, five years after Bishop's final Test.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Couldn't possibly be Jerome Taylor. He debuted in Tests in 2003, five years after Bishop's final Test.

Different clips.

 

[cnerd123]

Chappell played 96/151 innings in Home conditions. Dravid played on well past his peak. Chappell played in arguably a tougher era for batting, but Dravid has had a much longer career. Dravid's peak batting rating as per the ICC methodology was 892, Chappell's was 883. They both basically average the same thing. They're both great to watch when on song.

It's a wash IMO. Don't think you could decisively say who is better. Both played in very different styles too - I'd rather Dravid to face out a tough spell of bowling, but probably pick Chappell if I wanted someone to hit an aggressive 100.

 

[jimmy101]

Different clips.

My mistake!

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

My mistake!

It's okay mate.

I'd do anything to have that version of Jerome Taylor in our team. I remember like it was yesterday he made his test debut. I was in my first year of high school

 

[OverratedSanity]