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Rahul Sharad Dravid (born 11 January, 1973 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh) is an Indian cricketer, and the current captain of the Indian cricket team. He is one of the top-ranked batsmen in world cricket and started his international cricket career in 1996.
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Source: [1], 6 April 2006 |
Dravid's style
Beginning with the reputation of being a defensive batsman who should be confined to Test cricket, Rahul Dravid has defied early perceptions to become the mainstay of the Indian batting line-up in ODIs as well as in Tests. His nickname of 'The Wall' in Reebok advertisements was treated by ODI fans as a derisory comment about his inability to rotate strike as he tended to hold up one end playing his front foot defence, neither scoring runs nor getting out. Now the nickname has become a tribute to his consistency. Dravid has scored 22 centuries in Test cricket at an average of 57.65, including 5 double centuries, whilst in one-dayers he has an average of 40.16 at a strike rate of 70. He is one of the few Indians who average more at away matches than at home, averaging about 10 more runs a match abroad than on Indian pitches. As of 28 October, 2005, Dravid's average in overseas Tests stood at 63.20 as against his overall Test average of 57.62, and his average for away ODI stands at 42.95 as against overall ODI average of 39.60. In matches India has won, Rahul Dravid averages 79.51 and 51.54 in Tests and ODI respectively.
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 wickets for India in ODIs, an 'experiment' that continued for several seasons. 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 whose Test average has soared to 67.56 in matches played since 1 January, 2000.
Dravid was involved in two of the largest parnerships 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 ODI's 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).
Schooled at St. Joseph's Boys High School, Bangalore, and college in St. Joseph's College Of Commerce. He was coached by Keki Tarapore, Dravid has played county cricket for Kent and Scotland. He also led Karnataka to the Ranji Trophy, scoring a double century in the process in the final. He made his Test debut against England at Lords in the 2nd Test match of India's Test tour of England in 1996, and his ODI debut against Sri Lanka at Singapore in the Singer Cup tournament in the same year. He was named one of the Wisden cricketers of the year 2000.
In 2004, Dravid was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India. On 7 September, 2004, he was awarded the inaugural Player of the year award and the Test player of the year by the International Cricket Council, ICC (associated image below). Dravid's batting average of 95.46 in the past year has made him the only Indian to be in the Test team of the year. On 18th March, 2006, Dravid played his 100th test against England in Mumbai.
In 2005, a biography of Rahul Dravid written by Devendra Prabhudesai was published, 'The Nice Guy Who Finished First'.
In the 2005 ICC Awards he was the only Indian to be named to the World one-day XI.
Dravid was nicknamed 'Jammy' by schoolmates because his father worked for Kissan, famous for its jams and preserves.
In 2006, it was announced that he would remain captain of the Indian team up to the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies.
Personal Records
Tests
- Dravid has the 2nd highest Test batting average among those who have scored over 8,000 Test runs. (30 March 2006)
- Longest unbroken streak of consecutive tests since debut
- Greatest number of innings since debut before being dismissed for a duck
- Only player to score a century against every test playing nation, until the ICC decides to add more nations to the list of test playing nations his record can only be equalled, not broken.
- Involved in highest partnership made away from home with vice captain Virender Sehwag of 410 runs
- Also the highest partnership between a captain and the vice captain
One Dayers
- Highest Score by a wicket keeper in World Cup.
- Under his captaincy the Indiam team tied with the previous record of most consecutive wins for an Indian team (8). As of 7/4/06 this streak is unbroken. Because Dravid has decided to rest himself for the next few one dayers if Sehwag wins the ODI on Sunday (9/4/06) then it will break the record for most consecutive wins by an Indian team
- During his captaincy the Indian team broke the record for most consecutive won matches while chasing a total (15) Dravid was captain for 13 of these, Sourav Ganguly was captain for the other two. This streak is as of 4/7/06 unbroken. It should be noted that Dravid cannot fully be held responsible for the entire record breaking attempt, mereley that he was captain when the record was broken.
- Has the highest ODI batting average as captain of 45.58 (as of 4/7/06), among all captains who have captained more than 10 ODI's
Outstanding Innings
Tests
180 vs Australian in Eden Gardens in 2001
148 vs England in Leeds in 2002
233 vs Australia in Adelaide in 2003
270 vs Pakistan in Rawalpindi in 2004
110 and 135 vs Pakistan in Kolkata in 2005
One Dayers
143 vs Sri Lanka in Taunton in 1999
153 vs New Zealand in Hyderabad in 1999-2000
Captaincy
Achievements
- Dravid has been credited with turning around the Indian ODI team, under his captaincy the Indian team has jumped from the 7th position in the ICC rankings to the 4th position.
- Dravid has demonstrated a liking for 'experiments', such as sending lower order batsmen like Irfan Pathan and Mahendra Dhoni higher up the batting order. Both Pathan and Dhoni have risen to the challenge in ODIs, if not in Tests.
Criticism
- Rahul Dravid has had a mixed record when leading India in Tests. India lost the Karachi Test in 2006, giving Pakistan the series 1-0. In March 2006, India lost the Mumbai Test, giving England its first Test victory in India since 1985, enabling Flintoff's men to draw the series 1-1. While the loss in Karachi could be put down to several Indian batsmen playing badly, the defeat in Mumbai was probably the result of Dravid's inexplicable decision to put England in despite winning the toss. [2]
- One of Dravid's most debated decisions was taken in March 2003, when he was standing in as captain for an injured Sourav Ganguly. The Indian second inning was declared at a point when Sachin Tendulkar was at 194. In Dravid's defense, the media noted at the time that the decision had apparently been made by Ganguly [3], and Ganguly himself later admitted that it had been a mistake, [4] the wording of the statement indicating that it had not been Dravid's call.
- Dravid has shown himself quick to bring in new players, with several -- such as Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and Ramesh Powar -- playing crucial roles in Indian ODI victories. Yuvraj Singh too has hit a rich vein of form in the Dravid era; set against these, however, is the decline in form of Virender Sehwag and Mohammed Kaif.
- Stalwarts such as Anil Kumble and VVS Laxman appear to have been tacitly dropped from the ODI squad; how this pro-youth policy plays out remains to be seen, and any definitive judgment is not possible before the World Cup. [5]
Teams
International
- India (current)
- ACC Asian XI
- ICC World XI
Indian first-class
- Karnataka (current)
English county
Timeline
- 1973 - Born 11 January 11, 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.
- Stops keeping wickets on advice from Gundappa Vishwanath, Roger Binny, Brijesh Patel and coach Keki Tarapore.
- 1991 - Ranji debut against Maharashtra.
- 1996 - Double century in Ranji finals, vs. Tamil Nadu.
- 1996 - Test debut at Lords, England after Sanjay Manjrekar was injured and Navjot Singh Sidhu flew back home after a fracas with captain Azharuddin. Makes 95.
- 1997 - Maiden Test hundred (148), vs. South Africa, third Test, Johannesburg.
- 1997 - First one day hundred (107), vs. Pakistan, Independence Cup, Chennai.
- 1999 - Hundred in both innings (190,103) against New Zealand in Hamilton.
- 1999 - Makes 461 runs, including three 50s and two 100s in World Cup.
- 1999 - Signs up with Kent for the 2000 English county season.
- 2001 - Scores 180, while V. V. S. Laxman makes 281, in a fifth-wicket stand of 376 as India defeat Australia at Eden Gardens, ending 16 Test-winning streak by Australia.
- 2004 - Career best 270 against Pakistan, at Rawalpindi.
- 2005 - Succeeds Sourav Ganguly as Test and ODI captain.
- 2005 - The Nice Guy Who Finished First by Devendra Prabhudesai, released by coach Greg Chappell.
- 2006 - Scores first century as captain, at Lahore, vs. Pakistan.
Career highlights
Tests
Test Debut: vs England, Lord's, 1996
- Dravid's best Test batting score of 270 was made against Pakistan, Rawalpindi, 2003-2004
- His best Test bowling figures of 1 for 18 came against West Indies, St. John's, 2001-2002
- He is only the third Indian to score over 8,000 test runs, following Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar.
One-day internationals
ODI Debut: vs Sri Lanka, Singapore, 1995-1996
- Dravid's best ODI batting score of 153 was made against New Zealand, Hyderabad, 1999-2000
- His best ODI bowling figures of 2 for 43 came against South Africa, Kochi, 1999-2000
Awards
- 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
Personal Life
Rahul Dravid married Vijeta Pendharkar, a surgeon from Nagpur, on Sunday, 4 May, 2003; their son, Samit, was born on 11 October, 2005.