Rahul Dravid beats Sachin Tendulkar to emerge as India's greatest Test batsman in Wisden poll

Former Indian skipper Rahul Dravid has emerged as the country's greatest batsman in the longest format of the game after beating legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar in a poll conducted by Wisden India on social media recently.

The poll was recently conducted on the website's official Facebook account. 

Cricket fans had an option to choose from a total of 16 Indian batsmen. The list was later slashed to a final four of Dravid against Sunil Gavaskar and Tendulkar against current Indian captain Virat Kohli.

As many as 11,400 fans took part in the final round of polling and Dravid emerged victorious after winning 52 per cent of the votes.

Dravid saw off Tendulkar in the final round of the voting by a narrow margin despite trailing at 42 per cent on Tuesday morning.

"Dravid ended with 52 per cent of the total votes – as many as 11,400 fans took part in the poll for the final – despite trailing at 42 per cent on Tuesday morning. Much like Dravid batted during his playing career, he dug in and fought back in the poll, eventually crossing the line with a decent lead at the very end," Wisden India said in its report.

Earlier, Gavaskar--the former opener known for facing mighty West Indies side-- defeated Kohli--who has broken many records across the three formats--in the closely-contested third place play-off.

Regarded as one of the finest cricketers of the country ever, Dravid represented India in a total of 164 Tests scoring 13,288 runs, including 36 centuries and 63 half-centuries at an average of 52.31. He also appeared in 344 ODIs, amassing 10,889 runs at an average of 39.17.

Popularly known as 'The Wall', Dravid also appeared in 298 first-class matches he played during his illustrious career and notched 23,794 runs including 68 centuries and 117 half-centuries.  

Tendulkar, on the other hand, is regarded as one of the most complete batsman in the history of the game as he holds almost all batting records which exists at the moment. 

Hailed by many as the ' God of Cricket', Tendulkar went on to make 200 appearances for India in Test cricket  and amassed 15,921 runs in the format. He also featured in 462 ODIs for the Men in Blue and scored 18,426 runs in it. Meanwhile, his only appearance in the shortest format of the game came during a T20I match  against South Africa in 2006.