Rahul Dravid

Some Lesser Known Facts About Rahul Dravid

• Does Rahul Dravid smoke?: No

• Does Rahul Dravid drink alcohol?: No

• He started playing Cricket at the age of 12 and scored a century for his school team.

• Although he lives in Karnataka, he belongs to a Marathi family, and his mother tongue is also Marathi.

• His father worked in a factory that produced jams which gave Rahul his nickname “Jammy”.

• His other moniker “The Wall” came from an advertisement by Reebok that mentioned him as “The Wall”.

• In his childhood, he was obsessed with Hockey and was, in fact, selected in Karnataka’s junior state hockey team.

• Dravid has had a very curious habit since childhood. During his playing days, he would tap the bats and do shadow practice in front of the mirror. His roommates were very cooperative and didn’t interfere in his practice late at night.

• Dravid once revealed the reason behind his jersey number 19. He said,
  

  “It’s easy to remember my wife’s birthday.”

• In Bangalore, there is a local tournament at the school level named after one of his nicknames, “Jammy Cup” and the Man of the Match gets the title of “Jammy of the Day”.

• He is known for his techniques in batting and is considered the perfect batsman in the world of cricket.

• In an interview, he revealed that winning the Cottonian Shield inter-school cricket tournament is the best moment of his school life.

• He made his Ranji debut in February 1991. Gundappa Viswanath, then chairman of selectors saw his innings which he played in the semi-finals of the Cooch Behar Trophy, and called his team manager that Rahul is been selected in Ranji Trophy for Karnataka. In the first match, he scored 82 runs and in his second Ranji match, he scored a century against the Bengal team at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. In 1995, he captained the Karnataka team replacing Anil Kumble. His team reached the finals and defeated Tamil Nadu to lift the trophy. As he was gaining experience playing domestic games, everyone started asking him,
  

  “When are you playing for India?”

• Remembering the Ranji Trophy, he told,
  

  “Ranji Trophy is a hard school. You are always under pressure because you know that there are so many people playing for just two or three spots on the Indian team. The Ranji Trophy is a perfect finishing school for me. It taught me so much, both on and off the field, both technically and mentally.”

• After the 1996 Cricket World Cup, he made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka where he could only score three runs. On 20 June 1996, he made his Test debut against England at Lord’s. In the first match, he held a crucial partnership with Sourav Ganguly and scored 95 runs. He came to the team after replacing Sanjay Manjrekar.

• In the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he emerged as the highest run-getter for his team after scoring 461 runs in eight games at an average of 65.85 and strike rate of 85.52.

  

• After the World Cup, he could only score 40 runs in four games of the Aiwa Cup in August 1999. His highest ODI score of 153 runs came against New Zealand in 1999 when he had a record partnership of 331 runs with Sachin Tendulkar at Hyderabad. In 1999, Dravid was the highest run-scorer in ODIs with 1761 runs in 43 games at an average of 46.34.

• In February 2000, Tendulkar resigned from the captaincy and Ganguly was appointed as the captain of India. Dravid was also promoted as the vice-captain. In the 2000 ICC KnockOut games, under the captaincy of Ganguly and Dravid, India defeated Kenya, Australia, and South Africa to reach the finals where they lost to New Zealand. His total score in that tournament was 157 runs in four games.

• He scored his first double century against Zimbabwe in a Test match which India won convincingly by nine wickets in the year 2000. He then captained his team for the first time in the fifth ODI match against the same team which India won by 39 runs.

• In 2001, a Test match took place in Kolkata where India was enforced a follow-on after scoring 171 runs in the first inning. Dravid was sent at number six to join Laxman on the third day. The duo held a partnership of 376 runs where Dravid’s contribution was 180 runs. Australia was given a target of 384 runs on the fifth day which they lost by 172 runs.

  

• During the tour of the West Indies in 2002, Dravid scored a hundred of the swollen jaw and helped India to avoid the follow-on. This match ended in a draw. In the triangular ODI series against England and Sri Lanka, Dravid scored 245 runs at an average of 49.00.

• Then came the 2003 Cricket World Cup, wherewith the help of Dravid’s 62 runs against England, 44* against Pakistan, and 50 runs against New Zealand, India reached the finals of the tournament. Dravid’s contribution was 318 runs at an average of 63.16 including 16 dismissals as a wicketkeeper.

  

• His second double hundred came against New Zealand in 2003 at Ahmedabad where he scored 222 runs in the first inning and earned the ‘Player of the Match’ award. He then led his side in the second Test in Mohali against the same team. The game ended in a draw.

• Although he is considered a test batter, he holds the record for the second-fastest 50 (in 22 balls) among Indian batters in ODI after Ajit Agarkar’s  67 runs of 21 balls. This knock came against New Zealand in a TVS Cup in 2003.

• One of his best knocks in Test cricket came against Australia in 2003-2004. India lost their first four wickets on the score of 85. Then Dravid held a partnership with VVS Laxman and scored unbeaten 233 runs. In the fourth inning, India was given a target of 230 runs which India won convincingly with Dravid contributing with unbeaten 73 runs. After that match, captain Ganguly remarked,
  

  “Rahul batted like God.”

  

• In 2004, Dravid was given a captaincy in a Test series against Pakistan. India won the third match of that series where Dravid recorded his highest Test score of 270 runs at Rawalpindi. Under his leadership, India won the Test series for the first time in Pakistan.

  

• He then led his side in the 2007 ODI World Cup where India was knocked out from the tournament from Bangladesh in the league stage.

• In 2011, India toured England for a four-match Test series. In the first Test at Lord’s, India was given a target of 475 runs. Dravid scored 103 runs and was named on the Lord’s Honour board thus becoming the eighth Indian batter to do so. He again scored a century in the second Test at Trent Bridge, Nottingham as an opening batter in place of injured Gautam Gambhir. However, he failed to score in the third Test and India lost the match by an inning and 242 runs. In the fourth Test at Oval, he scored 146 runs. India lost the Test series 0-4.

• He played his last ODI inning against England at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff in September 2011 where he scored 69 runs off 79 balls. On the same tour, he played his first and the last T20I game against England and scored 31 runs. On 9 March 2012, he announced his retirement from international cricket. However, he continued to play league cricket. In his retirement speech, he said,
  

  “My approach to cricket has been reasonably simple: it was about giving everything to the team, it was about playing with dignity, and it was about upholding the spirit of the game. I hope I have done some of that. I have failed at times, but I have never stopped trying. It is why I leave with sadness but also with pride.”

• Post-retirement, he became the coach of the India Under-19 team and India ‘A’ team. Then he became the head of National Cricket Academy (NCA) Bengaluru. On 3 November 2021, the BCCI appointed Rahul Dravid as the Head Coach of the senior Indian men’s cricket team, and his innings commenced with the home series against New Zealand later the same month.

  

• Famous cricket journalist from England Christopher Martin-Jenkins once said about Rahul Dravid,
  

  “If a Martian were to land on Earth now and be told that the best batter in the world was playing in this match, he would think it was Rahul Dravid and not Sachin Tendulkar.”

• His MTV Bakra episode became very popular. In the episode, after being interviewed by a female journalist, the journalist proposes to him; however, Dravid refuses her proposal and tries to leave the room; making the whole scenario very funny.

• In 2003, Dravid played for Scotland in eleven games. ^[48]Times Now After the culmination of the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup, some senior players in the Indian national cricket team were given rest, and it was during this time that Gwynne Jones, the Chief Executive of the Scottish Cricket Union, approached the Indian team’s then-head coach John Wright, requesting him for a marquee overseas player. Although Gwynne Jones wanted Sachin Tendulkar to join Scotland’s Saltires, John Wright suggested him Rahul Dravid’s name. Wright said,
  

  The person who is really going to do things for you, on and off the pitch, is Rahul Dravid.”

  Dravid accepted the offer, and he ended up playing eleven fifty-over matches for Scotland in which he scored 600 runs at an average of 66.66.  In 2007, while speaking about his stint with the Scotland team, Dravid said,

  I enjoyed the friendships with players, officials, something I maintain till today. For both me and my wife it was a special three months to get love and warmth of the people of Scotland. I would have loved the game to have been at the Grains, though.”

  

• In 2007, when India was out from the 2007 Cricket World Cup after losing to Bangladesh, captain Dravid awarded his bat to their wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim and opening batter Tamim Iqbal.

• Dravid had represented Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Rajasthan Royals in IPL. Firstly, he had played for RCB from 2008 to 2010 then for Rajasthan Royals from 2011 to 2013. After playing his last T20 game in a Champions League in 2013, he retired from T20 cricket.

• There are two biographies dedicated to Rahul Dravid. One is ‘Rahul Dravid written by Vedam Jaishankar’ and another one is ‘Nice Guy Who Finished First written by Devendra Prabhudesai.’

• Rahul Dravid is the first non-Australian cricketer to deliver the Bradman Oration in Canberra.

• In April 2021, in an advertisement for Cred (a credit card bill payment app), Dravid, who is known for his calm and composed attitude, was shown as a person who had anger issues. In the commercial, Dravid battles the Bengaluru traffic snarls, and he rages behind the wheel; the commercial left people wondering:
  

  Rahul Dravid ko gussa bhi aata hai?”

  At the end of the commercial, Dravid screams in anger:

  Indiranagar ka Gunda hoon main.”

  The commercial went viral soon after it was aired on television.

• Rahul Dravid is a brand ambassador of some of the reputed brands in India like Plaeto, Piramal Realty, Practo, Aptech, InCred, Bengaluru FC, Manipal Hospitals, Arena Animation, CarDekho, etc. He is also endorsed by some of the brands in his career. These brands are Reebok, Pepsi, Kissan, Bank of Baroda, Max Life, Hutch, Sansui, Samsung, Gillette, etc.

• Rahil is known for his selfless attitude and is often praised by many. Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik, in an interview, shared an incident involving Rahul Dravid and emphasized his exemplary behaviour. Shoaib described a situation from the time when he was travelling from Pakistan to New Zealand along with his team on the same plane as the Indian under-19 cricket team, which Rahul coached. He explained that Rahul was keen to have a conversation with him regarding comebacks and motivations. He, however, waited for nearly two hours as Shoaib was asleep. ^[49]The Times of India Shoaib Malik went on to say,
  

  So what I am trying to say through this is that he has no ego. He wanted to learn what you go through (while trying to make a comeback). In his own career he has seen lots of ups and downs. So he asked me and I told him. I liked that a lot. The learning process never ends and look where the Indian team is standing today (under Rahul Dravid).”

• In his dressing room speech after winning the T20 World Cup 2024 title, he thanked Rohit Sharma for convincing him to stay as the head coach of the team till the T20 World Cup 2024 over a call in November 2023.

• He hit the headlines in February 2025 when a video of him having a heated argument with an auto driver in Bengaluru went viral. Reportedly, the argument ensued after the auto collided with Rahul’s car.