Dravid was born in a Maharashtrian Deshastha Brahmin family in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. His family later moved to Bangalore, Karnataka, where he was raised. Dravid's father worked for a company that makes jams and preserves, giving rise to the later nickname Jammy. His mother, Pushpa, was a professor of Architecture at the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE), Bangalore. Dravid has a younger brother named Vijay. He did his schooling at St. Joseph's Boys High School, Bangalore and earned a degree in commerce from St. Joseph's College of Commerce, Bangalore.
Dravid started playing cricket at the age of 12, and represented Karnataka at the under-15, the under-17 and the under-19 levels. Former cricketer Keki Tarapore first noticed Dravid's talent while coaching at a summer camp in the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Dravid scored a century for his school team. He also played as wicket-keeper, but later stopped keeping wicket on the advice of former Test players Gundappa Vishwanath, Roger Binny, Brijesh Patel and Tarapore.
Dravid made his Ranji Trophy debut in February 1991, while he was still attending college. Playing alongside future Indian teammates Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath against Maharashtra in Pune, he scored 82 runs in the match, which ended in a draw. His first full season was in 1991–92, when he scored two centuries and finished up with 380 runs at an average of 63.3, getting selected for the South Zone cricket team in the Duleep Trophy.
Dravid made his international debut on 3 April 1996 in an ODI against Sri Lanka in the Singer Cup held in Singapore immediately after the 1996 World Cup replacing Vinod Kambli. He wasn't particularly impressive with the bat scoring just three runs before being dismissed by Muttiah Muralitharan but took two catches in the match.
In contrast to his ODI debut, his Test debut was rather successful one. He finally made his debut in Test cricket at Lord's on 20 June 1996 against England. Dravid got the chance to be in the playing XI only because of the ankle injury to senior batsman Sanjay Manjrekar.Coming in to bat at no. 7, he forged important partnerships with another debutante Sourav Ganguly. Batting for more than 6 hours, he scored 95 runs, missing out on a landmark debut hundred by just 5 runs, before getting out to the bowling of Chris Lewis. He also took his first catch in Test cricket in this match to dismiss Nasser Hussain off the bowling of Srinath.
Dravid is known for his technique, and had been one of the best batsmen for the Indian cricket team. In the beginning, he was known as a defensive batsman who should be confined to Test cricket, and was dropped from the ODI squad due to a low strike rate. However in a period of his career, he began consistently scoring runs in ODIs as well, earning him the award of ICC Player of the year award. His nickname of 'The Wall' in Reebok advertisements is now used as his nickname.
Ever since Rahul Dravid came to the Indian squad, he won hearts around the world with his brilliance with the bat. Off the field, Dravid has been the perfect ambassador for the gentleman's game. Players, experts and fans alike have hardly ever had a bad word for Dravid.
On 4 May 2003 he married Vijeta Pendharkar, a surgeon from Nagpur. They have two children: Samit, born in 2005, and Anvay, born in 2009.
Towards the end of 2007, Dravid went into a form slump, that saw him lose his place in the ODI side, while he hung on to his Test spot by a thin margin. However, he re-emerged from the slump and even made a brief comeback into the ODI side after many had thought his limited-overs career was all but over.
Dravid had a tremendous tour of England in 2011 scoring three tons, including one at Lord's and aggregated 461 runs in the four tests. His performance in the series was met with widespread admiration and was hailed by some as one of his finest ever series. Due to this performance, he got surprise call for an ODI series in England in 2011, After being selected, he announced that he would retire from ODI cricket after the series. He played his last ODI innings against England at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, on 16 September 2011, scoring 69 runs from 79 balls before being bowled by Graeme Swann. His last limited-overs international match was his debut T20I match; he announced his retirement before playing his first T20I match.
Dravid announced his retirement from Test and domestic cricket on 9 March 2012, after the 2011–12 tour of Australia, but he said he would captain the Rajasthan Royals in the 2012 Indian Premier League. He was the second-highest run scorer and had taken the highest number of catches in Test cricket at the time of his retirement.
