The best person is the one who can play each and every role with full dedication and contribution. A player is not only judged by the records he made in the game but also by the way he lives his personal life. This article is about the calmest personality of Indian Cricket Team, Mr. Rahul Dravid. He has a unique technique of playing and had been one of the best batsmen of the Indian Cricket team.
Early Life: – Rahul Dravid was born on 11 January 1973 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Due to his shy and introvert personality, he was named as Jimmy. He started playing cricket at the age of 12 and was representing Karnataka at the National level. He continued studying while he was playing. He made his Ranji debut in February 1991 while he was doing MBA. After seeing his good performance in Ranji he was selected for the South Zone cricket team in the Duleep Trophy. Such an impressive talent was first recognized by the former cricketer Keki Tarapore.
International Career: – After analyzing all his performances, he got to play for India against Sri Lanka on 3 April 1996. On his first match, he was not too impressive with his bat but took two catches. Further, he was picked for the test cricket team against England. He didn’t play the first match of the series but in the second match he batted for almost 6 hours and scored 95 runs. Impressively, he was quite honest in his first match. As he nicked bowler bowls and all were waiting for the Umpire’s decision but he silently walks from the ground. Meanwhile, he topped the international run chart for the session 1996/97 with 852 runs in 12 matches with six fifties and one hundred. He was very consistent in test matches but was struggling in ODIs. Due to his poor performances in ODIs, he was many times not selected in the squad. Rahul made his World Cup debut against South Africa in 1999. He played outstandingly well in the 1999 world cup and later on went to become the captain of the Indian cricket team. Dravid touched the new heights in cricket. This was just the start, making of the great cricketer. He performed exceptionally well against New Zealand 1999, England in 2002/03 and West Indies 2006. As he was performing good in cricket now the whole team can rely on him so he got the name Mr. Dependable while also called as ‘The Wall’. Despite coming from a middle-class family and performing very bad in the starting matches it was Rahul’s dedication, motivation, and enthusiasm that made him improve his game and got him an irreplaceable place in the world of international cricket. But sadly, he announced his retirement from international and domestic cricket on 9 March 2012.
Rewards & Awards: – He was rewarded with many awards. Such as Arjuna Award in 1998, Padma Shri in 2004 and Padma Bhushan in 2013. Also got some of the esteemed cricket awards such as Cricketer of the year in 2004, Captain of the ICC’s Test team in 2006 and Wisden India’s highest impact Test batsman in 2015.
After completing his successful innings in the field, he is now showing his social presence too. He participated in the Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA), UNICEF Supporter and AIDS Awareness Campaign.
He is now the coach of Indian U-19 cricket team. Under his guidance, the team has recently won the U-19 world cup. He is now working hard for India by guiding the youngsters and preparing them for their future. I think future of Indian Cricket team is in good hands. India is proud that such an immensible talent is born in India.
Miss you on the field Jimmy.