Rahul Dravid
Nicknamed ‘the Wall’, Rahul Sharad Dravid is one of the most prominent Indian Cricket players of all times. He is a Top-order Right-handed batsman and an occasional wicket keeper too. He first played for Karnataka against Maharashtra in Pune for the Ranji Trophy and having played well he was approached by South Zone for the Duleep Trophy.
He played his first One Day International against Sri Lanka on April 3, 1996 in Singapore and his first test match was against England at Lords on June 20th 1996 where he scored 95 in his first innings.
Rahul Dravid has reached a score of 12,000 runs in test cricket, second only to Sachin Tendulkar in India. He is also the sixth International Player to score 10,000 runs in the history of one day International Cricket. Rahul also holds the record for the most number of catches in Test cricket with more than 200 wickets to his credit. He also holds a world record with Sachin Tendulkar for 19 century (100 runs) partnerships.
Rahul did his graduation in commerce from St. Joseph’s Boys High School, and was coached by Keki Tarapore. He went on to score a century on his debut for his School Team where he was also nicknamed Jammy by his teammates. His father worked for Kissan Comapany Ltd and his mother was a professor of Architecture at Bangalore University. He married Vijeta Pandharkar, a surgeon from Nagpur and has two sons, Samit (6 years old) and Anvay (2 years old). He was made the captain of Team India for the 2007 Cricket World Cup but stepped down due to under performance. He retired from One Day International Cricket in 2009 but plays Test Cricket regularly.
Rahul Dravid has played for Royal Challengers Bangalore and then for Rajasthan Royals in the different seasons of the Indian Premier League. He contributed to his team by being among the top scorers for RCB in first two seasons of IPL, and also scored amazingly for his new team RR. Dravid has won The Arjuna Award in 1998, The Wisden Cricketer of the year in 2000, the Padma Shri in 2004, ICC Test Player of the Year in 2004, MTV Youth Icon of the Year in 2004 and Captain on the ICC’s Test Team in 2006. Rahul Dravid is one of the few honorable players who play their game with talent as much as instinct. His technical precision is a matter of envy, so is the huge fan following even after a show of his lack in captaincy.