Happy Birthday Rahul Dravid:  Known as "The Wall" in world cricket, veteran Indian cricket team player and former head coach of Team India, Rahul Dravid is celebrating his 52nd birthday today. Rahul Dravid started his international cricket journey in the year 1996, after which he played for Team India for a long time in Test and ODI and also remained an important part. Dravid is counted among such players in Test cricket, whose wicket the bowlers had to work very hard to get. Due to this, even today there are many such records in world cricket in the name of Rahul Dravid, which no player has been able to break till now. At the same time, after announcing retirement, Dravid entered the world of coaching where he was also very successful.

Dravid's cricket career lasted 17 years

Rahul Dravid started his international cricket journey in 1996 with an ODI match against Sri Lanka in April. After this, in the month of June of the same year, Dravid got a chance to debut in Test cricket as well. Dravid never looked back after the journey that started from here, in which he was successful in making his place in both Test and ODI cricket. Rahul Dravid played a total of 164 matches in Test cricket, out of which he has scored 13288 runs at an average of 52.31 while batting in 286 innings. Dravid has 36 centuries and 63 half-century innings to his name in Test cricket. At the same time, Dravid also managed to score 5 double centuries in Test cricket.

If we talk about Rahul Dravid's career in ODIs, he has played 344 matches, in which he managed to score 10889 runs at an average of 39.17 while batting in 318 innings. Rahul Dravid has 12 centuries and 83 half-century innings in ODIs. Apart from this, he has also played one match in T20 International for Team India in which he managed to score 31 runs.

These big records are still registered in the name of Rahul Dravid

Rahul Dravid is still the only player in cricket history who has achieved the feat of scoring a century in 10 different countries. This includes England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Pakistan. Rahul Dravid still holds the record of playing the most number of balls in Test cricket, in which he faced a total of 31258 balls. Rahul Dravid is the only second player from India after Sachin Tendulkar to have scored more than 10 thousand runs in both Test and ODI. Rahul Dravid still holds the record of taking the most catches as a fielder in Test cricket, in which he has taken a total of 210 catches. Under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid, the Indian team managed to win a Test match in South Africa for the first time. In the year 2006, Team India defeated South Africa by 123 runs in the Johannesburg Test match. After Kapil Dev, Rahul Dravid was the second captain of India under whose leadership Team India won the Test series in England.

Coaching career was brilliant

After saying goodbye to all formats of cricket, Rahul Dravid entered a coaching career in which he was the coach of the Rajasthan Royals team for a long time in the IPL. After this, he was made the head coach of the Indian Under-19 team. Under Dravid's coaching, the Indian Under-19 team won the title in 2018 under the captaincy of Prithvi Shaw by defeating Australia in the final match of the World Cup. After this, Dravid was made the head of the National Cricket Academy where he played a very important role in grooming many young players.

In the year 2021, Rahul Dravid was made the head coach of the Indian senior team, in which the performance of Team India was very good. Team India also performed very well in the Test series on foreign soil during this period. In the World Cup played in India in the year 2023, even though the Indian team had to face defeat in the final match, Team India's one-sided performance was seen throughout the tournament. Rahul Dravid ended his tenure as head coach with the Indian team with the T20 World Cup in the year 2024, which Team India was successful in winning. Now Rahul Dravid will once again be seen in the role of head coach for the Rajasthan Royals team in IPL 2025.