40 Amazing facts about Rahul Dravid - The Great Wall of India

Rahul Dravid is undoubtedly one of the greatest cricketers India has ever produced. With over 10,000 runs in both ODIs and Tests, Dravid showed his class and temperament in all conditions. As it is popularly quoted among fans, ‘If cricket is a gentleman’s game, then Rahul Dravid is that gentleman.’ While people might feel they know enough about this batting great, there are a few facts unknown. Here are 40 amazing facts about Rahul Dravid – The Great Wall of India.

1. Early Life: Maharashtrian roots:

Rahul Dravid was born on January 11, 1973, at Indore in India. He was born in a Marathi family to his parents Pushpa and Sharad. Dravid lived most of his life in Karnataka.

2. Talent in his genes:

Rahul’s mother, Pushpa, was a professor of Architecture at the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE), Bangalore. She was also an artist and held various exhibitions in Bangalore. His father, Sharad, worked in a jam factory and was an ardent cricket lover. Jr. Dravid would often accompany his father to cricket matches.

3. Nicknames:

Dravid’s father worked in a Jam factory which earned him the nickname ‘Jammy’. He is also called as ‘The Wall’ and ‘Mr. Dependable’.

4. An educated cricketer:

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 to India national cricket team while studying MBA in St Joseph’s College of Business Administration.

5. Early start to cricket:

Dravid started playing at an early age of 12. He was quick to impress the selectors and represented his state at U15, U17 and U19 levels. Keki Tarapore, a former cricketer, noticed him at an early age when he scored a century for his school.

6. Introduction to first-class cricket:

Dravid made his Ranji debut in 1991 when he was still attending his college. Playing alongside future Indian teammates Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath against Maharashtra in Pune, he scored 82 runs in the match, which ended in a draw. In the next season, he shot to fame with 2 centuries to his name and an aggregate of 380 runs with an average of 63.3. This helped him get into the South Zone side for Duleep Trophy.

7. An unimpressive ODI debut and a contrast Test debut:

Dravid made his ODI debut in 1996 against Sri Lanka when he replaced Vinod Kambli in the team. He could score just 3 runs. He made his Test debut at Lords in 1996 against England. Coming in at number 7, Dravid scored 95 runs and missed a historic ton by just 5 runs. Sourav Ganguly also made his debut in the same match and scored a century. Dravid concluded a successful debut series with an impressive average of 62.33 from 2 Test matches.

8. Maiden Test ton:

He was promoted to the number three slot during India’s tour to South Africa. He almost singlehandedly won the Test for India with scores of 148 and 81 runs in the two innings but the thunderstorms at Wanderers enabled South Africa to ensure a draw. It was Dravid’s maiden Test ton.

9. Highest run scorer at 1999 World Cup:

Dravid was tagged as a Test player largely due to his failures in ODIs. It was during the ICC World Cup in 1999 that Dravid slammed his critics and performed well in the limited overs matches. He emerged as the top scorer of the tournament with 461 runs from 8 games at an average of 65.85 and a strike rate of 85.52. Though India failed to make it to the semis, Dravid had made his mark.

10. County stint – War against Warne:

Dravid joined Kent for the County Championships in 2000. In a match between Kent and Hampshire, eyes were on the personal battle between Warne and Dravid. On a dustbowl, tailor made to suit home team spinners, Warne took 4 wickets but could not take the all-important wicket of Rahul Dravid. Coming in to bat at 15/2, he faced 295 balls scoring 137 runs. He followed it up with another 50 in the second innings and Warne went wicketless.

11. Leading run-scorer for Kent in 2000:

Dravid finished his maiden County stint as the leading run scorer for Kent with 1221 runs in 16 matches at an average of 55.50. The next best was Paul Nixon’s aggregate of 567 runs at an average of 33.

12. Historic win at the Eden Gardens:

During Australia’s tour of India in 2000-01, in the Kolkata Test, India emerged victorious from nowhere after following on. India bundled out for 171 in reply to Australia’s 445. Following on, it was a remarkable 375 runs stand between VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid that took India to 657/7. Australia were dismissed for 212 and India won the match by 171 runs. Dravid had scored 180 runs in the 2nd innings of the match.

13. Four consecutive Test tons:

Rahul holds the distinction of being the only Indian to score centuries in four consecutive Test match innings when he scored 100* against West Indies at Mumbai. His previous three hundreds 115, 148 and 217 came during India’s tour of England in 2002.

14. 3 Double tons in a season:

In 2003–2004 season, he scored three double centuries: one each against New Zealand (222), Australia (233) and Pakistan (270).

15. Historic Adelaide win:

India won a historic Test against Australia in 2003. Dravid was the protagonist of the match for India. He scored 233 in the first innings and then followed it up with an unbeaten 72 in the second innings to see India home and win a historic battle.

16. Promoted as the captain:

When Greg Chappell took over as Indian coach, Rahul Dravid was promoted as the captain of the national side. During his tenure the Indian team broke the record for most consecutive victories batting second in One-Day Internationals previously held by West Indies (14 matches). For this 17-match run, Dravid was the captain for 15 matches and Sourav Ganguly was the captain for 2 matches.

17. Captain charismatic:

He was the first captain to lead India to a Test match victory against South Africa on South African soil. He was also only the third captain from India to win a Test series in England when India won the series in 2007. Rahul led India to a historic Test series win, against the West Indies away in 2006. Since 1971, India had never won a Test series in the West Indies.

18. 2007 World Cup debacle:

India had an early exit from the World Cup in 2007 when they were knocked out during the group stages under Dravid’s captaincy. He stepped down as the captain later that year.

19. Gentleman gesture:

After India were knocked out by Bangladesh in the World Cup in 2007, Dravid was graceful in accepting the defeat. He gifted two of his bats to the heroes of that match Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim.

20. Lone ranger in 2011 England tour:

India had a disastrous tour to England in 2011 when they faced a 4-0 whitewash. Rahul was the only player to have shown some resilience in batting in the tour. He scored 461 runs in the four matches at an average of 76.83 with three hundreds. He accounted for over 26% of India’s runs in the series. During the Test at Oval, he became only the third Indian batsman to carry his bat through the innings when he made 146*.

21. Retirement:

Dravid was dropped from the ODI side in 2009 but was recalled in 2011. He was surprised at his inclusion but announced that he would retire after the series against England. He scored 69 in his last ODI innings. He retired from Test cricket in 2012 after India’s disastrous tour to Australia.

22. Unique distinction – Debut and retirement in the same match:

Dravid is the only player to have made a debut and retired in the same match. This happened in the only T20I match that he played. Dravid scored 31 off 21 deliveries hitting 3 consecutive sixes in the match against England at Manchester.

23. IPL career:

He started his IPL career as the icon player for the Bangalore Franchise and played for Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Later he played for Rajasthan Royals and led it to finals of Champions League T20 in 2013, and play-offs of IPL season 2013. Dravid announced retirement from Twenty20 after playing the 2013 Champions League Twenty20 in Sept 2013.

24. Rahul Dravid – A Scotland player:

Not many would know but Dravid has played 11 matches for Scotland in 2003. He joined Scotland as an overseas player for the National Cricket League in England and made his debut against Hampshire. He scored a majestic 120* against Somerset and 129* against Nottinghamshire, both in losing cause. He ended being the top scorer for Scotland with 600 runs in 11 matches at an average of 66.66 with 3 centuries and 2 fifties.

25. Controversy – Ball tampering incident:

Against Zimbabwe in the tri-series down under, Dravid was found guilty of ball tampering. He was found applying an energy sweet to the ball, which he claimed as an unintentional move. He was fined 50% of his match fees for the offense.

26. Controversial declaration in Multan:

In 2004, Dravid was the stand-in captain as Ganguly was injured. In the match against Pakistan at Multan, he declared the Indian innings when Sachin was batting on 194 leaving him stranded 6 runs short of a deserved double ton. This remains to be one of the most debated decisions in his captaincy tenure.

27. Awards galore:

Dravid received the Arjuna Award in 1998 and was the CEAT International Cricketer of the World Cup in 1999. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2004. He was awared the ICC Test Player of the Year, ICC Cricketer of the Year and MTV Youth Icon Award in 2004. He was named the captain of the ICC’s Test Team in 2006. He had also received Wisden Cricketer of the Year award in 2000. He received the Don Bradman Award with Glenn McGrath in 2012 and received the Padma Bhushan in the same year.

28. Bradman oration:

He is the only non-Australian cricketer to address the Bradman Oration. He delivered the Bradman Oration on December 14, 2012, at the War Memorial in Canberra.

29. The Sexiest Sportsman:

Rahul was named as the Sexiest Sportsman in 2004 in a survey run by a magazine. He was voted ahead of the liked of Sania Mirza and Yuvraj Singh.

30. Cricket not the only sport:

He had started playing hockey and cricket at the same time. He was equally good at both the sports as a young man. But soon drifted apart from Hockey since he made it to the age group level teams in cricket.

31. A tournament to his name:

Dravid is nicknamed Jammy. His popularity is such that there is local tournament held in Bangalore named as the ‘Jammy Cup’. The player of the match is called as ‘Jammy of the Day’.

32. Dravid on MTV:

Dravid was a part of a prank by the popular MTV Bakra Segment. He was proposed by a young girl as a part of the prank. For the gentleman that Dravid is, he asked the young girl to focus on her studies instead!

33. Century in each Test playing nation:

He is the only batsman to have scored a century in all the Test-playing nations. Dravid has the highest aggregate for India in overseas victories – 1,354 runs from 22 innings at an average of 71.26.

34. A true partner:

He has contributed to a record 79 hundred-run partnerships in Test cricket. He is the only batsman to have been involved in two ODI partnerships exceeding 300 runs.

35. Biographies:

Rahul has two biographies to his name. Rahul Dravid – A Biography written by Vedam Jaishankar and The Nice Guy Who Finished First written by Devendra Prabhudesai. ESPNCricinfo released a collection of all articles related to Rahul Dravid in a book titled – Rahul Dravid: Timeless Steel.

36. Brand endorsements:

He has been involved with some of the biggest brands like Reebok, Pepso, Castrol, Max Life, Bank of Baroda, Gillette, Samsung, Sansui and Citizen.

37. Endorsements for Karnataka:

Dravid was the brand embassador for Karnataka Tourism in 2004. Currently he bats for Traffic Safety and Traffic Rules in Bangalore.

38. For the social cause:

He is an active member of Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA) and also a member of UNICEF Supporter and AIDS Awareness Campaign.

39. Personal life:

Rahul Dravid married Vijeta Pendharkar, a surgeon from Nagpur, on May 4, 2003. He has two sons, Samit born in 2005 and Anvay, born in 2009. He admits that his sons do not try to copy him but love to play in AB de Villiers’ style.

40. A true gentleman and a humble human being:

Dravid, even during his playing days, used to pick up his children from school. His wife says that he could manage with just two pairs of clothes on any tour. When a young Rahul Dravid fan, suffering from Cancer, expressed his desire to speak to him; Rahul made sure his wish was fulfilled. He Skype’d with him for almost an hour.