On January 11, 1973, Rahul Sharad Dravid was born, better known by his stage name, The Wall. The former Indian cricketer and skipper is now the head coach of the country's team. He served at NCA (National Cricket Academy) as a Head Coach for the India U-19 team. Under his coaching, the Under-19 team won the 2018 World Cup and finished as a runner-up in the 2016 Under-19 World Cup. He is always known for his classy batting style and techniques. He scored more than 24,000+ runs and was named among the best cricketers in history. Because of his defensive nature, he is often referred to as "The Wall" in cricket.

He declared his ODI retirement in 2011 and T20I retirement in 2012 against the England team. He also retired from first-class cricket after international retirement. After his retirement, he started playing IPL (Indian Premier League) as the captain of the Rajasthan Royals team in 2012.

After his retirement, Rahul decided to join Gosport's Foundation, Bangalore. In this foundation, he mentored future Olympians. The first batch of athletes Rahul Dravid tutored included teenage golfer S. Chikkarangappa, para-swimmer Sharath Gayakwad, and an Indian badminton star Prannoy Kumar.

Early Life

He was born in a Brahmin family in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. He did his schooling at St. Joseph's Boys High School in Bangalore, Karnataka, and later received his business degree from St. Joseph's College of Commerce in Bengaluru. He was selected for the team while pursuing his MBA at St. Joseph's College of Business Administration.

At Bangalore's University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering, Rahul's mother worked as a teacher. His father worked in a company named Kissan, best known for producing jam. Due to this, Rahul was given the nickname "Jammy" by his friends. He also has a younger brother whose name is Vijay.

International Cricket Career

International Debut

Rahul's performance in domestic cricket has been very consistence, and for this consistency, he got the maiden call for the national cricket squad for Wills World Series in 1994. But, he did not get a chance to participate in the playing 11. After this, he went back to domestic cricket and played hard to get a place in playing 11 of the national team. However, even after working so hard, he did not find a place even in the national cricket team for the 1996 World Cup.

He finally got the chance on April 3, 1996, and made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka in Singapore for Singer Cup in place of Vinod Kambli right after the 1996 World Cup. But he failed to perform and impress in the match. He just scored 3 runs in that match and got bowled by Spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, and his poor performance continued in another match against Pakistan, where he just scored 4 runs and got run out.

Later, he also made his Test Debut against the England team (India tour of England). He first played two practice matches against Leicestershire and Gloucestershire and performed well. But it couldn't help him to find a place in the final playing 11 for the first Test. But in the second Test against England, he got the chance and made his debut in Test cricket in place of Sanjay Manjrekar. He scored 95 runs in that match while batting at No. 7 and formed a great partnership with Sourav Ganguly (he also made his debut in this match) but was dismissed by Chris Lewis before scoring his first-ever century in Test cricket. However, he got another chance in the next Test series against British University, where he scored his maiden century. He won everyone's heart with his performance in this series.

Rise of Dravid

The international career after his debut was not so good for Rahul in many long and short format matches. He quickly established himself in Test matches, but it took him some time and effort to prove himself in ODIs.

He participated in a single Test against Australia in Delhi, his first Test in India, following a successful Test debut in England. He scored 40 runs during the first innings while batting at position 6. After this, he got a chance in another Test series against South Africa in the home series and batted at No. 3. At that time, his performance was not so impressive in this position as he scored only 175 runs in 3 Tests at an average of 29.

He became the second Indian, following Gundappa Vishwanath, to strike 6 fifty in six straight innings against Australia and Sri Lanka. After 1997-98, he played 22 matches in Test and scored 15 half-centuries, with four-time scoring 90s and a hundred.

In 1998-99, he scored 752 runs in just 7 matches this season at an average of 62.66. He scored four hundred and a half-century with this, one more time top the highest run-scorer for India. Later, India lost a test match against Zimbabwe, but Dravid scored the most in this Test, 118 runs in the first and 40 in the second inning. In both innings, he was the highest run-scorer for India.

Dravid was at his peak in his Test career, but on the other hand, he struggled in his ODI career. He was not a regular player since his debut in 1998. But the struggle ended in a Friendship Cup match in 1996 against Pak in Toronto. He got the very first ODI Player of the Match award in this series after scoring 220 runs in five games with a scoring rate of 68 and won the first-ever ODI Man of the Match in this series. In 1996 during the SBI International ODI against South Africa, he scored 280 runs in eight games and got the Man of the Match award for his 84 runs in the final match of the series. His first ODI century was in 1997 against Pakistan in Chennai. He scored the most runs for India in the quadrangular series, with 189 runs at an average of 94.50.

World Cup Debut

At Hove, England, where he made his World Cup debut against South Africa, he scored 50 runs, but in the next game, he just scored 13 against Zimbabwe, but the Indian team was defeated in both games. He also scored a half-century against England in the last match of the group, and India claimed a win and reached to super Six matches. In Super Six matches, he scored just 2 runs against Australia, 61 against Pakistan, and 29 against New Zealand. Unfortunately, he couldn't help India to reach the semi-final as they lost games against Australia and New Zealand.

After World Cup ended, he played Aiwa Cup in August and scored just 40 runs in four games. But after this cup, he came in his form and scored the most runs in two consecutive series. In DMC Cup, he scored 77 runs and took 4 catches in the final match of the series, where he got the Man of the Match award for his performance. In 1999, he scored 782 runs in 19 games and became the top run-scorer in the world. 

In 1999, India went to play 3-match Test series against Australia where Dravid didn't impress with his bat, and India lost the series by 0-3. Also, in Australia, they played triangular series (ODI) where Dravid scored 3 half-centuries, but the team failed to enter the finals of this series.

Dravid as a Captain

He became a captain in the series against Pakistan in which Sourav Ganguly (full-time captain) got injured, and Dravid led India in Pakistan to win the match in Pakistan. He was playing just his 2nd Test as captain, and he took a decision that became the subject of controversies.

On the second day of the first Test, he declared an inning when Sachin Tendulkar was just 6 runs short of making his double century in the Test, while Sehwag scored 309 runs. He made this decision because Pakistan players had fielded for over 150 overs. Rahul wanted to take advantage of the earlier wickets of the Pakistan batters as they were already exhausted in the field after two days of fielding.

As a Coach

In 2014, he took charge as the coach of the Rajasthan Royals in IPL. He became the coach of the U-19 team and India A squad in 2015. Under his coaching, India reached the final in the 2016 U-19 WC but couldn't win. Later in the 2018 U-19 WC, they won the title by beating Australia with 8 wickets. Today's superstars, Ishan Kishan, Washington Sundar, and many players find Rahul Dravid helpful during their coaching.

In 2019, after four years of coaching in junior cricket, Dravid was appointed as the Head of the Cricket in NCA. Later in 2021, he was appointed as the coach of the Indian National Team.

Achievements

• He got the Arjuna Award in 1998 for his achievement in cricket.
• In 2004, he got Padma Shri, India's 4th highest civilian award.
• In 2013, he received Padma Bhushan.
• In 2000, he was awarded the Wisden Cricketer of the Year.
• In 2004, he got ICC Cricketer of the Year and ICC Test Player of the Year.
• In 2018, he got the ICC Hall of the Fame Award.

Career Stats