Dravid to top the list

There are likely to be quite a few takers of the 11-4 that Sachin Tendulkar outscores his team-mates over the three-Test series against England, which starts with game one at Lord's on Thursday. After all he is the Little Master, the best since Bradman and widely regarded as a genius, praise not to be taken lightly. So what harm could it do to pile in on Tendulkar to take apart an England attack which is minus Steve Harmison and Freddie Flintoff? Well, quite a bit actually. Tendulkar was all of those things listed above. The problem is, he isn't any of them now. At 34 his powers are on the wane, even if he hit a century against England Lions in the warm up for the first Test to make a mockery of such a claim. Tendulkar has not topped India's run charts in a Test series since 2002 - 12 series ago - when he made 306 runs against New Zealand. And despite boasting a career average of 55 he averages just 34 since 2005 against the established Test playing nations, a derogatory figure at a time when the standard of international bowling has been low. Much better punting options could be Rahul Dravid, the captain and a tougher player to remove from the crease than Shiv Chanderpaul, and we know what problems England had with him against West Indies. Sourav Ganguly has chances too having played plenty of county cricket and being an obstinate old so and so who could get right up England's noses. Verdict: 1pt Rahul Dravid top India batsman 7/2 (William Hill)