Rahul Dravid turns 45 and wishes pour in for ‘The Wall’
Former cricketers, fans and twitterati wished Rahul Dravid on his 45th birthday as the former India captain’s name became a top trend on social media.
For the generation that grew up watching Rahul Dravid bat and like most cricket crazy Indians who aspire to take up the sport as a career, there could possibly be no better tutor who gave away free tutorials on the pitch. A part of the golden generation that saw the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid perhaps edged them out when it came to being technically sound.
Be it at the Eden Gardens during the marathon knock of 180 coming down at No.6 or the stellar 233 coming on to bat at No.3 at Adelaide, those copybook strokes simply made it difficult to breach his defence, thus, also earning him the tag -- ‘The Wall’.
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The only criticism that he faced throughout his career was perhaps that his strike rate was not quite as much as was required, but by the time he played his last ODI knock at home in Nagpur in 2007, he already had more than 10,000 runs against his name. His experience would still earn him calls on away tours though.
The former batsman, now the coach of the India Under-19 side which is taking part in the ICC U-19 World Cup in New Zealand, turned 45 on Thursday and quite expectedly fans and fellow cricketers across the globe took to social media to wish the living legend.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) led the way for the rest and summed up one of its greatest servants in the best way possible. “Commitment, Consistency, Class. Here’s wishing a very Happy Birthday to Former #TeamIndia Skipper Rahul Dravid #HappyBirthdayDravid,” it stated on its official Twitter account.
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Dravid was also the captain of the Indian side and led the team in 25 Tests and another 79 ODIs. Under him, the Test record was pretty modest with a win percentage of around 32 (won 8, lost 6, drawn 11), but the numbers in the ODI format were good — Won 42, Lost 33, Drawn 4.
He was also a part of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and played for Royal Challengers Bangalore and then Rajasthan Royals.
While there were several cricketers to join the queue, his former teammate Harbhajan Singh, perhaps takes the cake for the most innovative birthday wish.
Rahul Dravid played for India from 1996 to 2012 in which he took part in 164 Tests, 344 ODIs and one Twenty20 International. He scored 13288 runs in Tests and 10889 in ODIs with a total of 48 international centuries.