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THE WALL
Rahul Dravid
Introduction:
"It's a proud moment for sure. For me, growing up, I dreamt of playing for India. When I look back, I probably exceeded my expectations with what I have done over the last 10 to 12 years. I never had an ambition to do it because I never believed - it is just a reflection of my longevity in the game."
-- Rahul Dravid, after reaching 10,000 test runs.
Personal Life
Dravid was born in Indore, Madhya Pradesh into a Maharashtrian Deshastha family living in Karnataka. His paternal ancestors were Iyers from Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu.He grew up in Bangalore, Karnataka. He has a younger brother, Vijay. Both the brothers grew up in a simple middle class atmosphere. Dravid's father worked for Kissan, a company known for producing jams and preserves and thus he earned the nickname Jammy from his teammates at St. Joseph's Boys' High School, Bangalore. His mother, Pushpa, was a professor of Architecture at Bangalore University. Rahul Dravid has a degree in commerce from St Joseph's College of Commerce Bangalore, Karnataka. On 4 May 2003, he married Dr. Vijeta Pendharkar, a surgeon from Nagpur and on 11 October 2005, their son, Samit, was born. On 27 April 2009, Vijeta gave birth to their second son, Anvay.
Style
With a strong technique, he has been the backbone for the Indian cricket team. Beginning with the reputation of being a defensive batsman who should be confined to Test cricket, he was dropped from ODIs as he was slow in making runs. However, in a period of his career he began consistently scoring runs in ODIs as well, earning him the award of ICC player of the year. His nickname of 'The Wall' in Reebok advertisements has now become a tribute to his consistency. Dravid has scored 31 centuries in Test cricket at an average of 53.31, including 5 double centuries. In one-dayers too he has an impressive average of 39.49, although at a strike rate of 71.22. He is one of the few Indians who average more at away Test matches than at home, averaging about 5 more runs a match abroad than on Indian pitches. As of 23 September, 2010, Dravid's average in overseas Tests stood at 55.53 as against his home Test average of 50.76, and his average for away ODI stands at 37.93 as against home ODI average of 43.11.In matches that India has won, Dravid averages 66.34 in Tests and 50.69 in ODIs.
Dravid's sole Test wicket was that of Ridley Jacobs in the fourth Test against the West Indies during the 2001-2002 series. While he has no pretensions to being a bowler, Dravid often kept wicket for India in ODIs. He has since delegated the wicket-keeping gloves, first to Parthiv Patel and more recently to Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Dravid is now purely a batsman, one who has averaged 63.51 in matches played since 1 January 2000.
Dravid was involved in two of the largest partnerships in ODIs: a 318-run partnership with Sourav Ganguly, the first pair to combine for a 300-run partnership, and then a 331-run partnership with Sachin Tendulkar, which is the present world record. He also holds the record for the greatest number of innings since debut before being dismissed for a duck. His highest scores in ODIs and Tests are 153 and 270 respectively. Uniquely, each of his five double centuries in Tests was a higher score than his previous double century (200*, 217, 222, 233, 270).
Batting Records
Career Highlights:
Tests
- He is only the 3rd Indian to score over 10,000 Test Runs, following Sunial Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar
- He is the fastest batsman in the history of Test Cricket to make 9,000 runs
- The 1st person to score a century in all 10 test playing nations.
- Appeared in 94 tests in succession since making his debut in 1996.
- He has the most number of catches in Test cricket (currently 200)
- He has faced the highest number of deliveries in Test Cricket
- Only the 3rd player in the world and 2nd Indian to score centuries in both innings of a test match.
- Only the 3rd Indian to hit 5 double hundreds
- Dravid is one among the only four batsmen to hit Test centuries in four consecutive innings.
- In the 21 Test matches India won under Sourav Ganguly's leadership, Dravid scored at a record average of 102.84 piling up an astonishing 2571 runs, with nine hundreds - three of them double-centuries - and ten fifties in 32 innings. He contributed nearly 23% of the total runs scored by India those 21 matches, which is almost one run out of every four runs the team scored, a current World Record.
One-Day Internationals
- Only the 3rd Indian to score 10,000 runs, following Sachin Tendulakar and Sourav Ganguly
- Only player to be involved in two 300+ partnerships, one with Sachin Tendular (331) and the other with Sourav Ganguly (318)
- Only one of the two Indians to be the top scorer in a World Cup (the other is Sachin Tendulkar)
- Has the record of not being dismissed for duck for 120 consecutive ODI matches
| Matches | Runs | Highest Score | Average | Strike Rate | 100s | 50s | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tests | 150 | 12063 | 270 | 52.44 | 42.33 | 31 | 59 |
| ODIs | 339 | 10765 | 153 | 39.43 | 71.17 | 12 | 82 |
| First-Class | 282 | 22446 | 270 | 55.69 | -- | 62 | 113 |
| List A | 444 | 15147 | 153 | 42.54 | -- | 21 | 111 |
| Twenty20 | 54 | 1187 | 75* | 28.26 | 120.02 | 0 | 6 |
Achievements
Awards and Recognition
- Arjuna Award : 1998
- Ceat Cricketer of the World Cup : 1999
- Wisden Cricketer of the Year : 2000
- Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy Winnner : 2004
- Padma Shri : 2004
- ICC Test Player of The Year : 2004
- Captain of the ICC's Test Team : 2006
- 3 Man of Series awards and 9 Man of the Match awards in Test cricket.
- 14 Man of the Matches in ODI matches
Memorable Innings
- In 2008, he made 93 in the first innings of the Perth test, the highest score of the match, to help India win and make the series 1-2.
- In 2001, he scored 180 while VVS Laxman scored 281 in a fifth-wicket stand of 376 as India defeated Australia after following on to end Australia's 16-Test winning streak, one of the most astonishing wins in Test Cricket.
- In 2004, scored career best 270 against Pakistan at Rawalpindi to help India win the historic Test Series. .