I found it very difficult to choose from the 1st Three they are equally talented and have performed when the chips are down, but I feel with the added pressure of captaincy making it even more difficult to bat at that position for me it has to be Ponting but not by much, both Dravid and Younis are up there with him! Considering the dodgy opening batsman both india and Pak have!

Ricky Ponting. (no suprise there )

His current form is the best of any batsmen by far and he has dominated world batting since 2003. Batting at no.3 he has averaged a phenominal 66.25 with 24 Centuries and 21 Half Centuries. One case IMO where stats don't lie!!

He has dominated all teams, showing them no mercy with faultless legside play, and marvellous drives. Also, he's scored centuries against every test playing nation, with india & zimbabwe (only 1 match) the only conditions he has not conquered.

Add to that the fact that he has only got better since being handed the captaincy role (despite a lean first 15 innings as captain) and he's undoubtbly the best no.3 in test cricket.

Dravid and younis are both phenominal players no dout about it. And while dravid is definetly as good a batsmen as ponting, it's ponting's ability to dominate the bowling attack that sets him apart.

Agreed inzy!! younis is a fantastic batsmen, the reason i dont quite rate him as high as dravid is the fact taht dravid has done his been excellent over 100 tests, kahn only 50.

1 thing i just noted that shows just how important the no.3 batsman is in a test batting line-up. Looking at the poll, it is arguable that, each of the batsmen in the poll are arguably the best and most important batsmen in their respective teams.

Sarwan is probably the only exception, but after Lara, he is WI most important bat.

I opted for Dravid, Ricky is in fantastic form but I still think his wicket is easier to get (Early On) than Dravids.

Am I the only one who feels Fleming is a bit overrated with the bat?

He has a terrible conversion rate and only has 9 hundreds in 102 tests, Strauss has 10 in 30 Tests.

I would go for Dravid. While ponting is in the form of his life , The wall as long as I have know him is always in form. A great player and definately the hardest in the world to remove. As someone said before , ponting wicket is easier to get but with dravid , you have to toil and toil and toil. Ponting in my view abviously have 2 weakness while I can see one for Dravid.

Having said that about Dravid doesn't mean that Ponting isn't good. I will always rate Skipper (ponting as I tend to call him with my bro) as a real great batsman especially after 2002. He only averaged 45 in 2002 and look at his average now.... 58 odd. A genius both of them are.

By the way folks , Dravid has been batting all over the place which I would even rate him higher than ponting. A batter who performs anywhere and whatever role he is given.

Originally posted by Wal Bada Originally posted by dips_december Umm a tough one Ponting and Dravid are great so is Younis and so is Sanga ,I am utterly confused so Ill go for Dravid So am I mate' Because of added burdens of wicket keeping and vice captiancy,I'll go for Sanga.

Well all no 3 batsmen are important and they have to be good .

I opt for Dravid, to me not only he's the best nr.3 (when he plays there) but he's the best batsman in the world and has been for a couple of years now...

Khan is most likely my second choice but Ponting is just untouchable at the moment in that position for me.

Dravid, Sangarkarra, Khan are all fantastic players. Like a said, take Ponting out of the equation and it becomes excessively difficult to choose one

Not somuch overrated as underperformed Sureshot, he is undoubtably a very good batsman, but he consistently gets starts and doesn't go on with them.

True, but he only has 9 Hundreds in over a Hundred Test matches.

His conversion from 50s to hundreds is shocking.

18% conversion to 100s if my maths are right (9 100s, 41 50s)

No you're not the only one there - in fact I also think he is overrated as a captain too

sehwag no.1 ponting's great form hasn't only been for 3 series, it's been for three years. As i said in my original post in this thread, he's averaged 66 batting at no.3, he cannot get those figures in only three series'

vaLID pOINT.

not really, wait until the year is out and then count the runs, dravid has played more innings' than anyone else this calendar year thats why he has the most runs.

what is their weight of centuries and half centuries Spin ??? that tells a lot

Dravids career average is 58.75 while Punter's is 58.22 so there pretty even but that proves nothing you can't compare two of the greats in this modern era.Dravid is the only batsman this year to play 10 tests thats why he's leading run scorer here are some stats of both players.

2006 stats/batting

Ricky Ponting 6 tests,11 innings,2 not out's,802 runs,a highest score of 143*,an average of 89.11,strike rate of 61.12,5 centuries and 2 fifties.So overall that's a great year he's having and his conversion rate from turning fifties into hundreds is simply mind boggling.

Rahul Dravid 10 tests,18 innings,4 not out's,1046 runs,a highest score of 146,an average of 74.71,strike rate of 42.67,3 centuries and 7 fifties.

Ricky Ponting still has 5 tests to play this year in a 5 match test series against England which I think all 5 tests are before the start of the New Year.While Dravid has 1 test series this year left against South Africa where he plays 2,3 or 4 I can't remember the fixtures.

it would be interesting to see them bat together actually, i honestly don'tthink it would work. Ponting likes to get on with things a little more, and dravid doesn't turn the strike over as much, 1 of them would have to adapt a little, which is not exactly ideal.

Nah, Ramps has 2,000.....

and apart from given the commentators a nightmarish last name to deal with, really did nothing significant from what i can recall!!!!

Just one correction before I go further. Ponting had 12 not out while dravid had 9. Sorry about the wrong figures clapo.

Anyway , the answer to yout question is ponting 17 centuries since that time and dravid 9. Potning average in 2002 was 45 odd and had 3,505 runs I think.

Anyways , their record now is that dravid played 104 match while ponting played 105. Mean while , dravid have 1 more innings (176)than punter (175) and dravid have 257 more runs that ponting overall. Punter overall have 24 not outs while dravid have 22 and dravid average is 58.76 and punter own is 58.23 I think but I know its 58 Point something in the 20's.

So when you compare there isn't much difference other than the fact that dravid stats in terms of average is better.