RAHUL DRAVID

"The Wall", " Mr. Dependable", " Mr. Consistent"-Rahul Dravid, the man at the helm of Indian cricket is the cynosure of all eyes with the Indian cricket team eyeing the 2007 World Cup title this March in the West Indies. Born on 11 January 1973 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, he grew up in Bangalore and hit the headlines when he scored a century on debut for his school team and a double century for the Karnataka under-15 cricket team against the Kerala under-15 cricket team.

He made his Ranji debut in 1991 against Maharashtra. Thereafter, he was selected to play for South Zone in the Duleep Trophy. After consistent and strong performances in the domestic circuit, he was selected for the India A team in a domestic tournament. He donned the national colors against Sri Lanka in the Singer Cup in 1996. He did not do well and was subsequently dropped from the side. Once he came back to the team, he performed creditably in the home and away matches for India. Dravid has been the rock of the Indian cricket team.

His 331-run partnership with Sachin Tendulkar is a world record. He was named one of the Wisden cricketers of the year 2000. Dravid received the Padma Shri award in 2004. In the same year, the International Cricket Council awarded him the inaugural Player of the Year award and the Test player of the Year award.

Rahul Dravid has many records to his name. Among others, he has the second highest Test batting average among those batsmen who have scored over 8,000 Test runs, the longest streak of consecutive Tests since debut, was involved in the highest partnership made on foreign soil for any wicket for India with Virender Sehwag(410 runs vs Pakistan at Lahore in 2006) and is the fastest to reach 9000 runs in Test cricket.

He holds the record of not being dismissed on duck for 120 consecutive one-day matches and was the leading run scorer in the 1999 World Cup. It was under his captainship that the Indian team broke the 14-match record set by West Indies for the most consecutive matches one-day matches won while chasing a total. Whether Dravid guides India to another World Cup triumph is the million-dollar question.