RAHUL DRAVID. Born 1973

‘I’ve loved the game since I was a young kid…my earliest memories are of holding a bat and ball in my hand and wanting to play …I still get a buzz about competing in cricket and everything that goes with a match.’

Already a cricketing statesman before he retired from Test cricket in early 2012, Rahul Dravid’s batting shone in a team of willow-wielding gurus that included Tendulkar, Sehwag, Laxman and Ganguly. Articulate and engaging, his persona is defined by a genuinely humble attitude which is underpinned by a considerable intellect.

This triumvirate of character strengths has enabled him to successfully negotiate cricket’s myriad challenges both on and off the field for sixteen years at the elite level. An engaging speaker he is the first non-Australian to deliver Cricket Australia’s Bradman Oration.

One of only two batsmen to have aggregated 13,000 Test runs, he is the only player to have scored a Test century in all ten Test-playing nations. Always a model of technique and fastidious concentration, the right-handed batsman from Bangalore became known as ‘The Wall’, so obstinate was he when at the crease.

In 2001 when batting with VVS Laxman at Kolkata, the pair famously put on 376 runs against Australia after being forced to follow on to secure an improbable victory – Dravid making 180. Dravid is proud of his role in helping India secure its status as the pre-eminent cricketing nation and remains conscious of his status as a role model in India. Rahul Dravid made 36 Test centuries, five being double-centuries, and completed 210 catches – currently a world record.

Tests: 164
Career: 1996-2012
Innings: 286
Runs: 13,288
Average: 52.31
HS: 270 (v Pakistan, Rawalpindi, 2004)
ODI:344
Career: 1996-2011
Innings: 318
Runs: 10,889 Average: 39.17
HS: 153 (v New Zealand, Hyderabad, 1999)

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