Comparing the "Fabulous Five" of Indian cricket: Who was the greatest matchwinner of them all?

The Fabulous Five of Indian batting

The phase between the late 90s and the first decade of the 2000s is widely considered as the Golden Era of Indian cricket. Although there is more than one reason behind this, the primary one among them was the presence of a group of five outstanding batsmen in Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag. Together they are known as the “Fabulous Five” of Indian cricket.

For most of the time that these five spent together as part of Team India, they formed one of the most feared batting line-ups in world cricket; one which many opposition bowling attacks found virtually impossible to get through. All members of the Fab Five have contributed immensely to several Indian victories, but an important question that needs to be asked is ‘Who was the greatest match winner among them?’ 

What the Statistics Say

Many would argue that statistics are not always a correct representation of the truth, but they can certainly provide us pointers to help arrive at a decision. Based on a number of parameters, we try to figure out who the best match winner was.

Win Percentage – Virender Sehwag

The first point that we have considered is the victory percentage of the team in matches that each of these individuals has played. Here, it is the Sultan of Multan who edges out the other four with a win percentage of 40.38 followed by Tendulkar with 36 per cent, VVS with 35.04 per cent, Dravid with 34.14 per cent and Ganguly with 32.74 per cent.

Average in Matches Won – Rahul Dravid

We also need to consider the respective averages of these players in Tests where India was successful. In this regard, the Wall leads from the front with an incredible average of 65.78 as against his career average of 52.31. Tendulkar stands second with 61.93 while Laxman, Sehwag and Ganguly are third, fourth and fifth with 55.90, 54.65 and 46.61 respectively. A remarkable thing to note here is that the averages in matches won for all five of them is higher than their respective career averages.

Centuries in Matches Won – Rahul Dravid

Here we are not looking at the sheer number of centuries, but the percentage of centuries scored in a winning cause. 15 out of Rahul Dravid’s 36 Test tons contributed to an Indian victory and closely behind him is his favourite partner VVS Laxman with 7 out of 17. Sachin has scored 20 of his world record 51 hundreds in an Indian victory while Viru has 8 such centuries out of his 23, followed by Sourav Ganguly with just 4 out of 16.

Percentage of Runs Scored in Matches Won – Virender Sehwag

Scoring runs is important nonetheless, but they become more relevant if they lead to a victory. Virender Sehwag is the leader of the pack in this regard with 40.74 per cent of his runs helping India secure a win. Laxman, Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly are all behind the Delhi dasher with 38.83, 38.61, 37.34 and 31.66 per cent of their respective runs coming in Tests won by Team India.

Fourth Innings Averages – VVS Laxman

All five members of the Fabulous Five have not been at their best in the fourth innings of a Test match which is often considered to be the most challenging aspect of batting. VVS Laxman, though, did deliver the goods more times than the other three with a more than decent average of 40.55 while Rahul Dravid too does not fare too badly at 40.38. Next comes the former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly who averages 37.56 and uncharacteristically Sachin Tendulkar is fourth with an average of 36.93 in the fourth innings. Sehwag lies right at the bottom of this list with an average of just 31.06.

If you go purely by statistics, the battle for the greatest match winner among the Fabulous Five gets transformed into a two-horse race between Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. Sehwag does not look too far behind the top two and Tendulkar is also hovering around somewhere close by, however, Sourav Ganguly bows out of contention by ending up being fourth in most aspects.

Verdict

Despite taking various facts and figures into consideration, taking a call on who the greatest match among four of India’s best batsmen is difficult beyond doubt. Sourav Ganguly may have been one of India’s best captains ever, but in terms of being a match-winning Test batsman he falls slightly short.There is no denying Sachin Tendulkar’s immense contributions to Indian cricket, but as a match winner he may just not have done enough in Tests to beat a Laxman or a Dravid or even a Sehwag for that matter.

The only factor that pulls Virender Sehwag down badly is his poor fourth innings average, and that too without a single century. 

Among the top two contenders, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, it would be safe to say that it is Mr Dependable who wins a hard fought battle. The main reason for this is the infinite number of times when Dravid has pulled Team India out of troubled waters and put them on course for a victory. Laxman has definitely done justice to the role of a match winner by hanging on with the tail and pulling off some miraculous wins for the country but it was Dravid who set up things on many occasions with some crucial knocks.

However, the one thing that is for sure is that this is one debate that will go on for years.