Rahul Dravid reveals top reason for some fans picking Ricky Ponting over Sachin Tendulkar

Former Indian captain Rahul Dravid first burst onto the international circuit in 1996 and represented Team India up until his retirement in 2012. In a glorified 16-year career, he played with and against some of the great batsmen of the game like Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara, Jacques Kallis among several others. While the above mentioned cricketing giants boast of some staggering numbers in their batting resumes, Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting often stood out among the rest in embodying the essence of batting supremacy according to many fans, experts and purists of the sport.

Meanwhile, Rahul Dravid, a batting icon himself, once dissected certain aspects of the two legends and gave his take on the never-ending Sachin Tendulkar vs Ricky Ponting debate.

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Rahul Dravid speaks his mind out on Sachin Tendulkar vs Ricky Ponting debate

While Sachin Tendulkar has a colossal fan base in the subcontinent and in other parts of the world, a good section of the cricketing fraternity also believes that former Australian captain Ricky Ponting was a better all-round batsman than the Indian ‘Master Blaster’. In November 2014, Rahul Dravid gave his take on the matter through his appearance on ESPNCricinfo’s Modern Masters. The 164-Test veteran said that each fan has a different metric (or metrics) to judge batting talents and based on their own better judgements, they pick their favourite batsman.

Rahul Dravid also said that some people may prefer Ricky Ponting over Sachin Tendulkar because the two-time World Cup-winning captain held a better fourth innings record in Test cricket. He also talked about Ponting’s supreme batting record in decisive tournament knockouts like finals and semi-finals to win big matches for one of the greatest cricket teams of all time. Interestingly, one of Ricky Ponting’s most memorable of such knocks came against India in the final of the 2003 World Cup. The then Australian captain dazzled his way to a match-winning 140* in Johannesburg where Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar were at the receiving end of his brutal all-out attack.

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Statistical comparison of Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting in fourth innings

Interestingly, Sachin Tendulkar, as well as Rahul Dravid himself, have aggregated more runs than Ricky Ponting during Test cricket’s high-pressure fourth innings. However, the maverick Australian scored his runs at a better average than the two Indian warhorses. In 60 innings, Tendulkar scored 1,625 runs at an average of 36.93 with three centuries and seven half-centuries. Meanwhile, Ponting scored 1,462 runs in 43 innings at an alluring average of 50.41 with four tons and six fifties.

Sachin Tendulkar stats

The legendary Indian batsman made his debut in 1989 and remained one of the mainstays of the Indian batting order till his retirement in 2013. The Sachin Tendulkar stats section is filled with some of the major Test and ODI batting records. During his 24-year journey, the right-handed batsman stockpiled 34,357 international runs across all formats and is currently the leading run-scorer of all time. With 100 centuries, Sachin Tendulkar is also the leading century-maker in international cricket.

Ricky Ponting centuries and other stats

Throughout his 17-year journey for Australia, Ricky Ponting scored 41 centuries in 168 Tests and an additional 30 ODI tons in 375 matches. The combined tally of Ricky Ponting centuries (71), places him at second, i.e. just behind Sachin Tendulkar. With 27,483 runs, the right-handed batsman is also third on the list of highest run aggregators in international cricket.

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Image credit: Rahul Dravid’s screenshot from Oaktree Sports YouTube and IPLT20.COM