Rahul Dravid, during the course of his 177 off 251 balls against Sri Lanka in Ahmedabad accomplished a number of milestones.

By Rajesh Kumar

- Posted his 27th century - a tally exceeded only by Sachin Tendulkar (42) and Sunil Gavaskar (34) for India
 
- Completed 11,000 runs in Tests, a feat achieved by only five batsmen, including Sachin Tendulkar (12,777), Brian Lara (11953), Ricky Ponting (11345) and Allan Border (11174)
 
- Completed 1,000 runs against Sri Lanka - 1157 runs at an average of 52.59 in 15 Tests. He is the fourth Indian batsman to achieve the feat, joining Sachin Tendulkar (1412), Mohammad Azharuddin (1215) and Sourav Ganguly (1064)

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- Completed 8,500 runs (8599) while batting at No.3 at an average of 55.12 in 174 innings. Only Ricky Ponting has aggregated more runs than Dravid at this batting position - 8840 at an average of 60.54 in 95 Tests.
 
- Surpassed Donald Bradman's tally of 20 hundreds at the No.3 position. His tally of 21 hundreds while batting at No.3, is exceeded only by Ricky Ponting (31). 
 
Apart from the above feats in the Chennai Test, Dravid holds the following records in his glittering career:
 
- Played 94 Tests in succession since making his Test debut vs. England at Lord's in 1996 (upto vs. Sri Lanka at Delhi in 2005-06), which was a world record  for making most Test appearances in a row since making a Test debut, until surpassed by Adam Gilchrist, who played 96 Tests in succession.

Dravid, MSD help India consolidate

- When he stepped on to the field against England at Wankhede Stadium in March 2006, he became the sixth Indian to appear in 100 Tests and joined Sunil Gavaskar. Dilip Vengsarkar, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble.

- He is the first player to post a century each in all ten Test-playing countries.

- He is also one of the ten batsmen in Test annals to have recorded centuries against all the nine Test opponents - the other nine being Gary Kirsten, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Marvan Atapattu, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene.

- Shares an Indian record with Virender Sehwag for posting five double centuries and only Sir Donald Beradman (12), Brian Lara (9), Wally Hammond (7), Marvan Atapattu (6), Javed Miandad (6) and Kumar Sangakkara (6) have recorded more double hundreds than Dravid.

- All five of his double hundreds are against different opponents - one each against Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, England and Zimbabwe. Apart from Dravid, only Javed Miandad has five double hundreds against different opponents in Tests.

- Holds the Indian record for posting 3 double centuries during the 2003-04 season.

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- Twice in his career, he has recorded a century in each innings of a Test match: 190 & 103* vs. N.Z. at Hamilton,1998-99 and 110 and 135 vs. Pakistan at Calcutta in 2004-05. Only Sunil Gavaskar has achieved the feat on three occasions for India.

- Aggregated 300 runs in a Test match once - 305 (233 + 72* vs. Australia at Adelaide in 2003-04.

- Only Indian to record four centuries in consecutive Test
innings as under -

115  vs. England       Nottingham      2002
148  vs. England       Leeds           2002
217  vs. England       The Oval        2002
100* vs. West Indies   Bombay          2002-03

- One of the two players to record ten 90s in Test Cricket - the other being Austraia's Steve Waugh.

- His best calendar year in terms of run-aggregate - 1357 (ave.59.00) in 16 Tests in 2002.

- His best calendar year in terms of averages - 100.38 in 2003 - 803 in 5 Tests.

- Most centuries in a calendar year: 5 in 2002.

- He is the first Indian captain to have recorded a Test victory in Pakistan - at Multan in 2003-04.

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- Most centuries in a Test series - 3 in 4 Tests against England in 2002.

- His best series in terms of averages - 432.00 in 2 Tests vs. Zimbabwe in 2000-01 - His aggregate of 432 is a series record for India against Zimbabwe.

- His tally of 184 catches is a world record by a fielder.

- He is the only Indian to make 600 runs in an overseas series twice - 619 (123.80) in 4 Tests vs. Australia in 2003-04 (his career-best) - a record for India in a Test series against Australia. Against England in 2002, he amassed 602 runs (ave.100.33) in four Tests - a record for India in a Test series against England.
 
- Amongst the Test batsmen with 5000 runs or more away from home, his batting average of 56.90 is the best - 6430 runs in 75 Tests.

- Holds a fifth wicket partnership record for India - 376 with V.V.S.Laxman against Australia at Kolkata in 2000-01.

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- Holds a record for reaching 9,000 runs in the least number of innings (176) during the Kingston Test against West Indies in July 2006.

- He was the ICC's inaugural Player of the Year - mainly for his outstanding performance in 2003-04. He was one of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year in 2000.