Full Name: Rahul Sharad Dravid
Born: January 11, 1973, Indore, Madhya Pradesh
Major teams:India, Scotland, ICC World XI, Karnataka, Kent
Batting style:Right-hand bat
Bowling style:Right-arm off break
Rahul Sharad Dravid, generally known as Rahul Dravid is an Indian Cricket player and has been the Captain of the team for some time. Owing to his long and steady innings at the crease, Dravid is sometimes referred to as “The Wall” by Indian media and fans. Apart from Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid is the only Indian batsman who has scored over 10,000 runs in Test Cricket, and the 6th batsman in the world to have scored 10,000 runs in One Day International (ODI) Cricket, although 2 other Indian batsmen, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly had achieved the feat before him.
Dravid also has grabbed the biggest number of catches in the history of Test Cricket with a total of 182 catches, and has partnered in 72 centuries with 18 different batsmen which is in itself a world record.
Early Life
Rahul Dravid was born on the 11th of January 1973 at Indore, Madhya Pradesh and was brought up in Bangalore, Karnataka. He studied at St. Joseph’s Boys’ High School, Bangalore and St. Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bangalore.
Dravid had begun playing Cricket at quite an early age, and made a place for himself in the State Cricket team at Under-15, Under-17 and Under-19 levels. In the year 1991 he made his debut in Ranji Trophy while playing against Maharashtra. He scored 82 runs in the match, which was eventually resulted in a draw. In the year 1991-12 he also represented South Zone in the Duleep Trophy.
Test and ODI Debut
Rahul made his debut in One Day International (ODI) Cricket with an ODI match between India and Sri Lanka, played at Singapore on 3rd of April, 1996. He scored just 3 runs in the match. His debut in the Test Cricket was made on the June 20th, 1996 with a Test match against England, and he scored 95 runs in the match.
Remarkable Achievements
He got his first Man of the Match award in a Test match against South Africa in the year 1996-97. He scored 148 and 81 runs, which were top score in both the innings respectively. Also, in the New Year Test match played against New Zealand in the year 1999, he scored 190 and 103 (Not Out) runs respectively, achieving the rare feat of scoring a century each in both the innings of a Test match. Till then, this feat had been accomplished by only 2 Indians, viz. Sunil Gavaskar and Vijay Hazare.
In the year 2001, Dravid delivered his best performance in partnership with V.V.S. Laxman in a Test match against Australia. The pair together added 376 runs for the 6th wicket, out of which 180 were scored by Dravid while 281 were scored by Laxman.
Dravid scored 4 consecutive centuries against England ( 3 centuries) and West Indies (1 century) in the year 2002. In the year 2003-2004, he raked in 3 double centuries against New Zealand, Australia and Pakistan. He also got India its first Test match victory over Pakistan in Pakistan itself in the year 2003-2004. In the final match of the Test Series being played at Rawalpindi, Dravid added 270 runs to the total, making India victorious upon Pakistan in the country itself for the first time.
Rahul Dravid made the highest total score in the ICC World Cup Cricket 1999, with 461 runs. He was the Captain of the Indian team during ICC World Cup Cricket 2007, although his performance like other teammates in this tournament didn’t meet the expectations of the nation. Personally, Dravid scored 14 runs against Bangladesh, 7 not out against Bermuda and 60 against Sri Lanka in the tournament.
He was also the Captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore team in the IPL Twenty-20 Tournament 2008, although in the 2009 he was replaced by Kevin Pietersen.
Dravid scored 314 runs in the Test Series against New Zealand played in the year 2008-09.
Overall Performance
In his overall Test Cricket career, Rahul Dravid has played 134 Test matches till April 2009. In these matches, he has scored 10823 runs with an average of 52.53 runs and the highest score of 270 runs. While in ODI Cricket, he has played 333 ODI matches till April 2009 and has scored 10585 runs with an average of 39.49 runs. His highest ODI score is 153 runs.
