It’s Rahul Dravid’s 51st birthday today! He’s the head coach for Team India and used to be their captain.
Rahul is a real star of cricket. He played for India 164 times in Tests, 344 times in ODIs, and even played in a T20I. Over 504 matches, he scored a total of 24,064 runs, that included 48 tons and 145 half-centuries. His average? A whopping 45.57! He was the team captain for 79 ODIs and 25 Tests. Rahul led his team to victory 42 times in ODIs and eight times in Tests.
People often call him ‘The Wall of Indian Cricket’ because he’s done so much for the sport. He’s a right-hand batter and he’s scored over 10,000 runs in both Tests and ODIs. Impressive, right?
Rahul Dravid, as a guiding force, steered the U19 Indian squad to World Cup glory in 2018. Under his guidance, the senior team reached the finals of both the ICC’s World Test Championship (WTC) and the One Day International (ODI) World Cup in the previous year.
Rahul Dravid received birthday wishes on X, previously Twitter, from the cricket community. The renowned Sachin Tendulkar penned:
Here are a few further responses:
ಹುಟ್ಟು ಹಬ್ಬದ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು! ????
— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) January 11, 2024
Captain. Legend. Coach. ????????????
Wishing a very Happy Birthday to Indian Cricket's finest, RCB's first leader, and current #TeamIndia head coach, Rahul Dravid! ????????#PlayBold #ನಮ್ಮRCB pic.twitter.com/hxFHEiAFGJ
“As of now, we will be certainly opening with Rohit and Jaiswal” – Rahul Dravid confirms openers for IND vs AFG 1st T20I
Rahul Dravid has announced that Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal will be the openers for the first T20I match. It’s against Afghanistan, in Mohali on Thursday, January 11th. They’ll use the left-right combination. This information came from ESPNCricinfo’s quotes.
“As of now, we will be certainly opening with Rohit and Jaiswal. But when you have a squad, you have to have that flexibility to do whatever is required if that is in the best interest of the team, and gives us the best chance to succeed. So nothing is closed. But certainly, we’re really happy with what Jaiswal has done as an opener for us, and he gives us a left-right combination as well at the top.”
Rahul Dravid
Regarding Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer not getting into the T20I squad, Dravid went on to clarify things. He declared:
“Ishan Kishan was not available for selection. He has not yet made himself available for selection. I’m sure when he is ready, he will play domestic cricket and make himself available for selection.”
Rahul Dravid
He added:
“In Shreyas Iyer’s case, there was absolutely no disciplinary reason for his non-inclusion. There were a lot of batsmen in the team, and Shreyas Iyer missed out. He didn’t play the T20s in South Africa as well if you notice, and it’s unfortunate.
“He is a fine player, but there are a lot of batsmen, and it is not easy to fit everyone in the squad and the playing XI.”
Rahul Dravid