Hyderabad:Former India cricketer and head coach Rahul Dravid is celebrating his 52nd birthday today. The man known as ‘The Wall’ in Indian cricket started his international journey in 1996. Eventually, he became a key player in the ODI and side of the Indian cricket team. Dravid was known to be one of the batters with the trait of making the bowlers sweat hard to take their wicket with impeccable defence. With his immaculate strokeplay, the right-handed batter scripted some records in world cricket which are yet to be broken by anyone.
17 Years of Career
Dravid commenced his international career in 1996 with the ODI fixture against Sri Lanka. He made his debut in the Test cricket same year in June. The veteran Indian batter then kept dishing out some prolific performances and played a pivotal role in the national side. He played 164 Test matches and scored 13288 runs from 286 innings with an average of 52.31. Dravid has 36 centuries and 63 fifties in Test cricket. He has amassed five double centuries in Test cricket.
ODI stint
Dravid featured in 344 ODI matches and amassed 10,889 runs from 318 innings with an average of 39.17. He has scored 12 centuries and 83 fifties. Also, he has played one T20I fixture playing a knock of 31 runs.
Some of the unbreakable records by Dravid
Dravid is the sole player across the globe to score centuries in 10 different countries. The list of countries where he has scored centuries includes England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. He also owns the record for facing the most deliveries in Test cricket (31,258). Also, he is only the second cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar to score more than 10,000 Test runs. Dravid has also a record of taking the most catches as a non-wicketkeeper.
An illustrious coaching career
Rahul Dravid started his coaching tenure after drawing curtains on his international career. He started in the coaching role for Rajasthan Royals. He was then roped in as head coach of the Indian U-19 cricket team in 2018 under the leadership of Prithvi Shaw. India won the World Cup beating Australia in the title decider. Dravid has also worked as the head of the National Cricket Academy (NCA).
T20 World Cup triumph in his coaching
Dravid was appointed as the head coach of the Indian team in 2021. Under his coaching, India made it to the final of the 2023 ODI World Cup and suffered a defeat against Australia in the title decider. Although they failed to conquer the trophy, the team dished out a dominating performance throughout the tournament. The Indian team lifted the T20 World Cup 2024 under the coaching of Rahul Dravid.
