Legends Of India

Rahul Dravid, the leader of the Indian cricket team who has surpassed and also created many remarkable records, is certainly man with a difference. Dravid was born on 11th January 1973 in the city of Indore in Madhya Pradesh, India. His complete name is Rahul Sharad Dravid though he is well-known with nicknames such as Jammy and The Wall, attributed to him for different reasons.

Rahul did his schooling from St. Jospeh’s Boys High School, Bangalore and graduated from St. Joseph’s College of Commerce. Dravid started playing cricket at an early age of 12. He played for the state in under-15, under-17 and under-19 cricket tournaments. Soon Dravid played the County cricket for Scotland and Kent. At that time his coach was Keki Tarapore, an Indian cricketer who played in one test match in 1948. In 1991 Dravid also led Karnataka to the Ranji Trophy and made a double century in the final match. In 1996 Rahul got an opportunity to play international cricket. He made his test debut against England at Lords in the 2nd Test match of India’s tour of England. In the same year Dravid’s ODI test debut was against Sri Lanka at Singapore in the Singer Cup tournament. Rahul was one amongst he Wisden cricketers of the year 2000.

In the world of cricket Rahul is known for his consistent batting and active leadership. He is one of the best defensive batsman India could ever produce. This defensive style of playing fetched him the nickname of ‘The Wall’. He is blessed with immense skill to rotate the strike and play with front foot defence, neither scoring runs nor getting out. Rahul’s brilliant strategy of playing cricket has enabled him to create some outstanding records in the cricket world. Dravid has scored 23 centuries in Test cricket at an average of 57.65 which included 5 double centuries while in one-dayers he has an average of 40.16 at a strike rate of 70. He has played a total of 104 test matches and 291 ODIs and the runs scored are 9049 and 9510 respectively. Dravid is also the world record holder for the highest percentage of runs in the matches won under a single captain, where the captain himself has won more than 20 tests. Under the captainship of Bengali boy Saurav Ganguly, Indian team played 21 matches out of which Rahul Dravid played in every single wins and scored a record average of 102.84 and made 2571 runs, with nine hundreds- three of them double-centuries- and ten fifties in 32 innings. Dravid made a great contribution of 23% of the total runs scored by India in those 21 matches. It is only due his superb and consistent performance that Dravid was first made the vice-captain and then the captain of Indian team. Apart from batting Rahul has also done wicket keeping in many matches. His innocent face and distinct attitude has made him the heartthrob of females all over the world.

Lately the Indian skipper and his boys played a scintillating test innings in and against West Indies and brought home the Cup. Prior to this Dravid along with Vireder Sehwag was crowned the hero of the Allianz Cup 2006 (Pakistan v India Test Series) as the dup played a record breaking innings on Pakistan soil.


Rahul Dravid's Cricket Career


• 1973 - born January 11, 1973 in Indore
• 1984 - attended a summer coaching camp at KSCA's Chinnaswamy Stadium where his talents were spotted by former cricketer turned coach Keki Tarapore.
• scores his first century in an unofficial match for his school team St.Joseph's against St.Anthony's.
• scores a double hundred for the Karnataka schools team which he smashed against Kerala.
• selected for the under-15 Karnataka team.
• senior cricketers and administrators like G.R.Vishwanath, Roger Binny, Brijesh Patel and coach Keki Tarapore felt that it would suit Rahul better if he bid good-bye to the wicket keeping gloves for ever.So Dravid concentrated on his batting from then on.
• 1991 - Ranji debut against Maharashtra.
• 1996 - scores double century in the finals of the Ranji Trophy in 1996 against Tamil Nadu.
• 1996 - selected for India.
• 1996 - test debut at Lords, England after Sanjay Manjrekar is injured and Navjot Sidhu descides to stay back after fracas with Captain Azharuddin.Scores a brilliant 95.
• 1997 - Scores his maiden test hundred(148) Vs South Africa, third test, Johannesburg.
• 1997 - Scores his maiden one day hundred(107) in a losing cause Vs Pakistan, Independence Cup, Chennai.
• 1999 - Scores a hundred in both innings (190,103) against New Zealand in Hamilton.
• 1999 - Great World Cup, scores 3 fifties and 2 hundreds scoring 461 runs which was the highest by any batsman from any team.
• 1999 - In october he signs a deal with English county Kent for the 2000 season.
• 2001 - Scores 180 while Vangipurappu Laxman makes 281 in a fifth-wicket stand of 376 as India defeat Australia after following on to end Australia's 16-Test winning streak.
• 2004 - Scores career best 270 against Pakistan at Rawalpindi.India wins the series.
• 2005 - Appointed captain of Team India.
• 2005 - Dravid's Biography "The Nice Guy Who Finished First" authored by Devendra Prabhudesai released by coach Greg Chappell.
• 2006 - Dravid scores his first century as the Test captain of the Indian Cricket team in the first test against Pakistan in Lahore.


Awards Won by Rahul Dravid


• 1999 - Ceat Cricketer of the 1999 World Cup
• 2000 - Wisden Cricketer of the Year 2000
• 2004 - Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy
• 2004 - Padma Shri
• 2004 - ICC Player of The Year
• 2004 - ICC Test Player of The Year