2) Rahul Dravid is of Tamil ancestry from his father's side. The Dravids migrated north to Maharashtra a few centuries ago and took the surname after the 'Dravida' region from which they hailed.
3) Rahul dravid made his Ranji Trophy debut in 1991 against Maharashtra in Pune scoring 82 after batting in the No. 7 position, the same position at which he would bat on his Test debut.
4) Rahul Dravid made his Test debut against England at Lord's a few months later, replacing his Karnataka teammate Sunil Joshi in the playing XI after the first Test in Edgbaston. Dravid fell agonisingly short of a century on debut, making 95 before he nicked one from Chris Lewis to wicket keeper Jack Russell
5) Rahul Dravid maiden Test century came in his ninth Test, against South Africa in Johannesburg in 1996-97, when he top scored in each innings with 148 and 81. It was also his maiden Man of the Match award. He won 11 Man of the Match awards in Tests, eight of which came overseas.
6) Rahul Dravid was the highest scorer in the 1999 World Cup, scoring 461 runs. He was subsequently named one of the five Wisden cricketers of the year in 2000.
7) Rahul Dravid has been involved in the two highest partnerships in ODIs - 331 runs with Sachin Tendulkar and 318 with Sourav Ganguly at Hyderabad and Taunton respectively, both for the 2nd wicket and both in 1999
8) Rahul Dravid's only Test wicket was that of Ridley Jacobs in the fourth Test against the West Indies during the 2001–2002 series.
9) Rahul Dravid played one season of county cricket for Kent in 2000. The Kent coach was none other than John Wright, who later went on to become the coach of Team India. Dravid had a memorable duel with ShaneWarne in a match against Hampshire and came out on top with scores of 137 and 73 not out
10) Rahul Dravid holds the record for the highest average in a Test series by an Indian. He averaged a humongous 432 against Zimbabwe in 2000 with scores of 200 not out, his first double century, 70 not out and 162.
11) In 2003, Dravid married Vijeta Pendharkar, a surgeon from Nagpur. They have two children, Samit (born 2005) and Anvay (born 2009)
12) Rahul Dravid was selected for national team while he was studying MBA.
13) Rahul Dravid’s talent was first noticed by the former cricketer Keki Tarapore while coaching at a summer camp in the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore.
14) Rahul Dravid was the third Indian batsman to score a century in both innings of a test match after Vijay Hazare and Sunil Gavaskar. He scored 190 in the first innings and 103* in the second innings against New Zealand at Hamilton in 1998-99 series.
15) Gary Kirsten was Dravid’s first ODI wicket which he took in Kochi in a bilateral series.
16) Each of his double centuries in Tests was a higher score than the previous double century : 200*, 217, 222, 233, 270
17) Rahul Dravid holds the distinction of being the only Indian to score centuries in four consecutive test-match innings when he scored against West Indies at Mumbai. His previous three hundreds, 115,148 and 217 came during India's tour of England in 2002
18) Rahul Dravid won the ICC Test Player of the year and the Player of the year awards when the ICC awards were launched way back in 2004, which remains one of his greatest achievements.
19) Rahul Dravid is also the only cricketer to have scored a century in each test playing nation. He achieved this stunning feat with a century against Bangladesh at Chittagong in 2004.
20) Rahul Dravid is the only non-Australian cricketer to address the Bradman Oration. He delivered the Bradman Oration on December 14,2012 at the War Memorial in Canberra. What an honor
21) Rahul Dravid was voted the sexiest sports personality in India in an online survey (2004-05). He left the likes of Yuvraj Singh and Sania Mirza behind.
22) Much like Sourav Ganguly who also drifted to cricket after an initial obsession with football, Dravid played hockey before he took to cricket. With a natural flair for the sport, Dravid was selected for Karnataka's junior state team
23) MTV viewers might have seen this! Dravid was proposed by a woman on MTV's popular show - Bakra, a part of a prank ofcourse. But Dravid was seen advising the young maiden about continuing with her education and devoting her time to other things in life except her obsession for him!
24) Rahul Dravid played 94 successive Tests from his debut before missing what would have been his 95th Test against Sri Lanka at Ahmedabad in 2005-06 due to fever. It's the second longest streak of consecutive Tests since debut,behind only Adam Gilchrist (96)
25) Rahul Dravid is only the second non-English cricketer to have hit 3 or more centuries in a two different Test series in England (2002 and 2011), the other being Donald Bradman.
26) Rahul Dravid is the first and only batsman to score a century in all ten Test playing nations.
27) The bowler who dismissed Dravid the most times in Test cricket is Shane Warne on eight occasions, followed by Brett Lee who scalped Dravid seven times.
28) Rahul Dravid has faced the most number of deliveries in Test cricket - 31,258.
29) Rahul Dravid home ground, the Chinnaswamy Stadium, however has not been so lucky for him. In 8 Tests and 15 innings here, he has a highest score of just 60.
30) In 2012, Rahul Dravid was honored with Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honor. Several celebrated cricketers such as Kohli, Sehwag and Ganguly described themselves lucky to have played alongside a legend Rahul Dravid.
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