Former India captain and currently head coach Rahul Dravid turned 49 on Tuesday. Dravid, who is called the wall of India, was a part of the Indian team for 16 years. Known for his good batting technique, Dravid scored 24,177 runs in international cricket and is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. Know some important things on the occasion of Dravid’s birthday.
Born in a Brahmin family of Maharashtra
Dravid was born on 11 January 1973 in a Marathi Brahmin family in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. His family later moved to Bangalore, Karnataka, where he was brought up. His mother tongue is Marathi. Dravid’s father Sharad Dravid worked for a company that made jams and preserves, giving rise to the latter’s nickname, Jamie. His mother, Pushpa, was a professor of architecture at the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE), Bangalore.
Dravid has a younger brother named Vijay. He did his schooling at St. Joseph’s Boys High School, Bangalore and earned a degree in commerce from St. Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bangalore. He was selected in the India national cricket team while pursuing his MBA at St. Joseph’s College of Business Administration. He is fluent in several languages: Marathi, Kannada, English and Hindi.
Rahul married Dr. Vijeta Pendharkar, a surgeon from Nagpur, and their son, Samit, was born on 11 October 2005. Vijeta gave birth to their second son on 27 April 2009.
Started playing cricket at the age of 12
Dravid started playing cricket at the age of 12 and represented Karnataka at the under-15, under-17 and under-19 levels. Former cricketer Keki Tarapur saw Dravid’s talent for the first time during his coaching at the summer camp at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Dravid scored a century for his school team. He also played as a wicketkeeper.
On 3 April 1996, Dravid played the first ODI for Team India and the first Test match on 20 June this year. Then this journey continued for the next 16 years. He retired from international cricket in March 2012.
Second Indian to score the most runs in Tests
Dravid has played 164 Test matches in his career spanning 16 years, in which he scored 13,288 runs at an average of 52.31. During this he scored 36 centuries and 60 half-centuries. In which he scored 28 centuries while batting at number three. Dravid has a unique record of scoring 10,000 or more runs in Test and ODI cricket. He is the first batsman in the world after Sachin Tendulkar to score the most runs in Tests, while only the third Indian batsman after Sachin and Sourav Ganguly to score 10,000 runs in ODIs. Dravid’s innings of 270 runs against Pakistan in Multan was the biggest innings of his Test career.
There are many such world records in the name of Dravid, which show that Dravid is not just called the wall of cricket. Rahul Dravid also holds the record for playing most balls in Test matches. Rahul faced 31,258 balls in his career spanning 16 years and spent a total of 736 hours at the crease, which is a world record.
Dravid’s specialty was that he was a run machine against every situation and every team. Dravid has been the first batsman in the world to score a century against all 10 teams in the world playing Test cricket. As a non-wicketkeeper fielder, he took more than 210 catches in 164 Test matches, which is also a world record.
debut match last match
Dravid is the only player in the world who retired in the debut match itself. Yes, Dravid made his T20 debut against England in 2011 and said goodbye to T20 in this match.
head coach of indian team
Former Indian cricketer and former captain of the Indian national team, Rahul Dravid was appointed the head coach of the Indian team in November 2021. Prior to his appointment to the senior men’s national team, Dravid was the head of cricket at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and the head coach of the India Under-19 and India A teams. Under his tutelage, the Under-19 team finished runners-up in the 2016 Under-19 Cricket World Cup and won the 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. He is colloquially known as Mr Dependable and is often referred to as The Wall.
national honor
1998 – Recipient of Arjuna Award for achievements in cricket
2004 – Padma Shri – India’s fourth highest civilian award
2013 – Padma Bhushan – India’s third highest civilian award
other honors
1999 – CEAT International Cricketer of the World Cup
2000 – Dravid was one of five cricketers selected as Wisden Cricketer of the Year.
2004 – ICC Cricketer of the Year – Highest award in ICC listing
2004 – ICC Test Player of the Year, ICC Cricketer of the Year
2004 – MTV Youth Icon of the Year
2006 – Captain of the ICC Test team
2011 – NDTV Indian of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award along with Dev Anand
2012 – Don Bradman Award with Glenn McGrath
2015 – Wisden India’s Highest Impact Test Batsman
2018 – ICC Hall of Fame