Harish Kotian in London/Rediff 

London, Jul 20: England batsman Ian Bell believes that Rahul Dravid is one of the best batsmen has he has played against and even rates the Indian captain higher than Sachin Tendulkar.

"After watching Dravid in India last year, I came away thinking he was one of the two best players, along with [Ricky] Ponting, I had come up against. Yes, even better than Sachin. The style Dravid plays in is one that appeals to me," the England batsman wrote in his blog for The Guardian on Thursday.

However, the 25-year-old says he has learnt a lot watching Tendulkar play over the years.

"Here's a weird thought. When Sachin Tendulkar was busy hitting a hundred to save the Old Trafford Test in 1990, I was eight years old. That innings comes a couple of years too soon for my memory bank, but it became clear not long afterwards that Sachin would play a big role in my career. I was turning out for Warwickshire Under-11s in 1992 when he joined Yorkshire as their first overseas player and right from the start it was obvious that he was going to influence me in ways he never knew.

"The Warwickshire age-group coaches used to show us videos of great innings, and a fair number of them contained one Sachin masterclass after another. It was Steve Waugh for the mental stuff, Sachin for the technique. I especially remember an innings he played against Allan Donald, and we would be encouraged to do our best to absorb his genius and then go into the nets against the bowling machines and see what happened," Bell adds.

The right-hander says the fact that a talented batsman like Yuvraj Singh could not make it to the team shows what a strong bench strength India possess.

"The fact that India can leave out Virender Sehwag and have got Yuvraj Singh in reserve shows you what strength in depth they've got. Bar Australia, they've got the best batting line-up in the world. It's pretty frightening really, but I'm sure our young bowlers will relish the challenge," he wrote.