Rahul Dravid was voted India’s greatest Test batsman in the last 50 years by a poll conducted on Facebook by Wisden India.

The former captain and famous India No.3 batsman saw off the legendary Sachin Tendulkar in the final by a small margin on Tuesday.

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’s poll initially pit 16 Indian batting legends against each other, with that being whittled down to four in the semi-final stage, where Dravid saw off Sunil Gavaskar and Tendulkar comfortably beat his successor in India’s Test No.4 slot Virat Kohli.

In the closely-contested third place play-off between Gavaskar and Kohli, it was the former – an opener famous for facing the mighty West Indies pacers without a helmet – who edged the current captain, who is well on the way to breaking an array of records in all formats.