The two are as different as chalk and cheese. One drives a Mercedes and has waded through the milling crowds with humility and grace, can stand honking at traffic jams without fretting and fuming, can breeze on a highway with poise and elan – all this with hardly a scratch on the body. The other drives a Ferrari and believes that he can rule any racing circuit – including the lanes and bylanes of every part of the globe. And has taken body blows on several occassions – only to reemerge as a champion racer.

Instant Coffee versus Filter Coffee  - no one has been able to explain or justify the difference in consumer sentiment, feeling and perception till now! 

Let’s start with analysing the performance of the two in Tests.

There are many angles from which we will need to study their performances:

1)      Dravid & Sehwag – Career Graphs (Figure 1)

2)      Dravid with Sehwag – (Figure 2) 

3)      The 1^st 84 Innings of Dravid and Sehwag  (Figure 3)

Perspective 1:

On 3^rd Nov 2001 Sehwag started his test cricket career in a blazing fashion with a 105 on debut, Dravid had  already completed 84 innings in tests and had scored over 4000 runs. Has Sehwag 'bridged this gap' with his flamboyance? 

Interestingly, Dravid’s debut was no less spectacular – on 20th June 1996 - with a 95 against England at Lords. Their styles have a stark difference – yet, as we shall discover through a series of posts, there appears to be little or no difference in the value of their contributions to Indian cricket or their special place amongst the elite cricketers of all times.

Fitness and Consistency have been the hallmarks of Dravid's career - a fact reflect in the graph above, for you see virtually no 'gaps' in his long career. On the other hand, Sehwag's infamous form slump during the Grep Chappel era saw him losing his place in tests between May 2007 and Jan 2008 - having been "dropped" for the series against Bangladesh, England, Pakistan and the 1st test of the Kumble led series against Australia.

Perspective 2:

How have Dravid and Sehwag performed during the period they have been together from 03 Nov 2001 onwards?

Figure 2 below says it all"

Aggresion, blitzkreig, some high scores, many good scores and equally many low scores have been the highlights of Sehwag’s career. In a little more than half the number of innings Dravid has played, Sehwag has seen more ducks than Dravid. “Hit Out” or “Get Out” has been Sehwag’s credo. 84% of his scores of 50+ have resulted in a draw or a win for India.

Artistry, elegance, tenacity, unyielding obstinacy at the crease and many many high scores have been the hallmarks of Dravid’s career. 88% of his scores of 50+ have resulted in a draw or win for India.

Perspective 3:

What was Dravid's accomplishments and stature at the time Sehwag arrived? 87 Innings (including 3 Did Not Bat) and 4033 runs. How does Sehwag's look like after 84 innings?

Take a look at figure 3 - and you will see that there is very little to choose between the two in terms of runs scored.

When Sehwag made his test debut, looking at Dravid he must have told himself: "Sir, when I have the same experience and exposure as you have, I hope to match you". He seems to have lived up to that - every word, every run!

Their test careers have been as thrilling as a Formula 1 race. And I have no idea how their ODI careers compare!

(To be continued)

Note: The data for this analysis has been taken from public domain - Cricinfo, to be specific. However, no part of the content has been 'reproduced' from any website.