Rahul Dravid is an Indian professional cricketer who was born on January 11, 1973 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Popularly known as “Jammy” or “The Wall” in the cricketing circles, this right-handed batsman also keeps wickets besides bowling right-arm off spin occasionally. Rahul Dravid graduated from the St Joseph's College of Commerce in Bangalore and resides in Bangalore with his wife, Vijeta, and son, Samit.


Rahul Dravid had a passion for cricket right from the age of 12 and his talents were first spotted by Keki Tarapore, an established cricket player-turned-coach. He broke into the senior national team in June 1996 and made his mark by scoring 95 runs on his Test debut against England. In the tour of South Africa that year, he made a thundering 148 in the first innings and followed it up with a 81 in the second innings in the third Test at Johannesburg, which fetched him the Man of the Match award. He scored centuries in both the innings of the New Year's Test match against New Zealand, played in 1999, to join an elite band of Indian cricketers who have scored centuries in both the innings, namely Vijay Hazare and Sunil Gavaskar. Rahul Dravid made his first double century against Zimbabwe in Delhi, helping India to a victorious finish.


2001 proved to be a remarkable year not just for Rahul Dravid but also for Indian cricket. In the second Test match against Australia played at Kolkata, he joined hands with VVS Laxman to build a 376-run partnership, of which he made 180 runs, to script one of cricket’s greatest comebacks. The following year too turned out to be fruitful for Rahul Dravid, as he made four centuries in a row, three against England and one against the West Indies.


Rahul Dravid scored three double hundreds during the 2003-04 season to become the second Indian batsman to score double hundreds thrice in Test cricket. He holds the distinction of being the only player to smash a century against every Test playing nation away from home. Rahul Dravid is also the third Indian to score more than 10,000 Test runs and he reached this landmark on March 29, 2008 against South Africa in Chennai. As of August 11, 2008 he has scored 10,246 runs from 125 matches at an average of 53.92 in Test cricket.


Due to his consistent performance and ability to lead the team he was named the captain of the Indian team. In 2006 his brilliant captaincy helped India win the Test series against the West Indies in its home, a feat last achieved in 1971. That year, Rahul Dravid also became the first captain to lead India to its first Test triumph against South Africa on its home soil as well as the third Indian captain to win a Test series in England.


Rahul Dravid entered the One Day International (ODI) scene by making his debut against Sri Lanka on April 3, 1996 at the Singer Cup in Singapore. He made his first half-century against Pakistan in the Sahara Cup held in 1996. Rahul Dravid gave a stunning performance in the 1999 World Cup, making 461 runs, to finish as the top run-scorer of the tournament. For this achievement he was named Ceat Cricketer of the 1999 World Cup. Under his vice-captaincy, the Indian team made it to the final in the 2003 World Cup, in which Rahul Dravid perfomed a dual role as a batsman and wicket-keeper. In the 2007 World Cup held in the West Indies he led Indian cricket team.


In the history of ODI cricket, Rahul Dravid was the third Indian to make 10,000 runs. He accomplished this on February 14, 2007 becoming the sixth player in the world to achieve this feat. Rahul Dravid also has to his credit the record of being the only batsmen involved in two ODI partnerships exceeding 300 runs. He holds the record for the highest number of catches by an Indian fielder and also has the highest ODI batting average of 45.58 as captain. His spectacular performances in ODIs have fetched him fourteen Man of the Match awards. He has made 10,585 runs, his career best being 153, from 333 matches in ODI cricket as of October 14, 2007.

Rahul Dravid represented the state at the Under-15, Under-17 and Under-19 levels, not only proving himself as a good batsman, but also as a wicket-keeper. He was selected to play in the Ranji Trophy match against Maharashtra in February 1991, in which he played exceptionally well to score 82 runs. Following his 380 runs scored at an average of 63.3 in his first full season in 1991-1992, he was chosen for the South Zone team for the Duleep Trophy.


Rahul Dravid was an automatic choice to captain the Bangalore Royal Challengers owned by Vijay Mallya for the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008. He made 329 runs from the 12 matches that he had played for this team, his highest score being an unbeaten 75.


For his services to Indian cricket Rahul Dravid was conferred with the Padma Shri Award by the Indian Government in 2004. He was also the recipient of the 2004 Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy given to the International Cricket Council (ICC) Player of the Year