Relive the top five innings of Rahul Dravid on his birthday

Rahul Dravid is considered one of the greatest batters of all time. He is the current coach of the Indian Men’’s cricket team. Recently under his coaching Indian team has reached the finals of the ICC World Cup 2023. He was called the wall of the Indian team due to his batting style. He loves to stay on the crease for so long without getting bothered for runs, he is known for his cool and calm nature which also justifies his batting technique. He made his International debut in the ODI format against Sri Lanka in Singapore on 3 April 1996 and after a couple of months, he played his first test. He evolved as one of the greatest test batters of all time as he scored 13288 runs in 164 games. Eventually, he managed to score over 24000 runs and became the second leading sun-getter for India after Sachin Tendulkar which was later surpassed by Virat Kohli. He has 48 international centuries which is the third-highest number of Tons for India. He hung up his boots after playing his last international game in the longest format on January 24, 2012, against Australia at Adelaide. Rahul has played only one T20 game in 2011 against the English team at Manchester. In his 16 years of international career, he has entertained us with his batting style and scored so many runs with many memorable innings. On the 51st birthday of legendary Rahul Dravid let’s relive his top five memorable innings which accurately define his legacy. 

148 vs South Africa 1997

It was Dravid’s 17th Test inning and first-ever hundred. After making his debut in 1996 it took approx 10 months to score his first century in international cricket. First ton is always special and making it big is the best feeling for a young cricketer. India was playing the third and final test after losing the first two of three test match series in South Africa. The final test match was played in Wanderers Johannesburg and India was batting after the coin fell in India’s favor. Asians lost their first wicket in the form of Vikram Rathore at the score of 25 and then youngster Rahul Dravid came out to bat at number three and became the last batter to be dismissed. He scored 148 runs in 362 balls with 21 fours, his extraordinary inning and the partnerships that he built with other batters helped India to add 410 runs in the scoreboard. Rahul has scored another 81 runs in the second inning which helped India to draw the test match. Due to the fabulous innings, Rahul Dravid was considered as player of the match. 

123* vs New Zealand 1999

On 9th January 1999 India was playing their first ODI game on the tour of New Zealand and India was batting first after winning the toss. Indian batters seem helpless in front of the Kiwi’s bowling attack led by Chris Harris and Gavin Larsen at their home. Rahul Dravid was the only batter scoring seamlessly against the lethal attack by the Kiwis. He made an unbeaten 123 with the help of 10 fours and one six. He also added 113 runs with Saurav Ganguly(60) which helped India to score 257 runs with the loss of five wickets. New Zealand won the rain-interrupted game with the DLS method by 5 wickets and six balls remaining. Despite losing the game Rahul Dravid became the player of the game. 

270 vs Pakistan 2004

It was the third and decisive game of the test series against Pakistan in their home. The first match was won by India and the second went in favor of the hosts. The third game is going to decide that is there be a team ends up winning the tournament or if this will end up in a draw. Saurav Ganguly won the toss and invited Pakistan to bat. India’s bowling attack led by Lakshmipathy Balaji didn’t allow Pakistani batters to stay long in the crease and dismissed them on the first day at a score of 224. India scored monstrous 600 runs in the second inning of the game and Rahul Dravid was the prime contributor to the score by making 270 runs in 495 balls with 34 fours and one six, Rahul Dravid was the only triple-digit scorer for India but some crucial innings by VVS Laxman, Saurav Ganguly, and Parthiv Patel helped India to clinch the match by an inning and 131 runs, with this historical win India won the first test series in Pakistan. For his contribution with bat, Rahul Dravid was considered as the player of the game. 

109* against West Indies 2002

Chasing 300+ in ODIs is still the toughest job to do and Rahul Dravid did it in 2002 at Motera Stadium Ahmedabad against West Indies. It was so important for the Indian team, which was trailing 2-1 in the 7-match ODI series to register a win in the fourth match and West Indies challenged Indian hopes by adding 325 runs in the first inning. Now it was the batters’ job to do in the batting-friendly surface of Ahmedabad. Rahul Dravid then took the charge and led the batting of the Indian team, in the absence of star batter Sachin Tendulkar and initial blows of Virendra Sehwag and skipper Saurav Ganguly it was Rahul who added 103 runs with Laxman, 61 runs with Yuvraj Singh and 96 runs with Sanjay Bangar and won the game to level the series. Rahul Dravid scored an unbeaten 109 runs in 124 balls with eight fours. Due to his calculated and organized inning, India made a comeback and leveled the series by 2-2. 

180 vs Australia 2001

It is considered one of the greatest test matches played in history. This game is a journey in itself of an underdog team making a greatest-ever comeback. The second test match of the three-match series was going to be held in Eden Gardens Kolkata and India was trailing by 1-0 in that series, this test was a do-or-die game for the Indian team. Australia raised the bar of competition by scoring 445 runs in the first inning and India was about to lose after the whole Indian team was dismissed at just 171. India came to bat again after the follow-on given by Australian Captain Ricky Ponting. It was confirmed that India was going to lose and now the challenge was to avoid the loss of an inning, and that hope was demolished when Sachin Tendulkar got dismissed on 10 at the score of 115. India lost their fourth wicket on the form of skipper Saurav Ganguly who was looking good at an individual score of 48. India was still 42 runs behind when Rahul Dravid came to join VVS Laxman who was fighting alone to get rid of the lead and looking to set a target. Australia was preparing for a 50-60 runs target in the final inning but the batters present at the crease had some other plans. Both batters started batting ahead of 254 for four on the fourth day and when the day ended the tables were turned, VVS Laxman was unbeaten at 275 and Rahul Dravid was perfectly anchoring the inning with 155 runs. Along with the Australian side, the whole world was in shock and the Indian crowd was amazed by the batting of these two gems. On the fifth day, both continued the inning and when VVS was dismissed on the ball of Mccgrath they added 376 runs which is the third-highest partnership for the fifth wicket in test cricket. Rahul Dravid was run out at the score of 180 runs with 20 fours and Saurav Ganguly then declared the inning on 657 with the loss of 7 wickets. Declaring inning after getting a follow-on was just insane, India then won the game by 171 runs after taking all the ten Australian Wickets on the final day of the game. After getting trailed by 1-0 India ended up the series by winning it with 2-1. 

Also Read: 2023 Recap: Analyzing the performance of Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Test