Rahul Dravid, during the course of his magnificent 144 off 226 balls at Green Park, Kanpur, accomplished a number of milestones.

By Rajesh Kumar

Rahul Dravid posted his 28th century - a tally exceeded only by Sachin Tendulkar (43) and Sunil Gavaskar (34) for India.
 
He has also overtaken Allan Border's aggregate of 11,174 (ave.50.56) in 156 Tests, moving into the fourth place behind Sachin Tendulkar (12,917), Brian Lara (11,953) and Ricky Ponting (11,345).
 
The Bangalorean completed his 1,300 runs against Sri Lanka – 1,339 runs at an average of 53.56 in 16 Tests - a tally exceeded only by Tendulkar (1,552).
 
With the knock, Dravid has taken his run-aggregate to 8,781 while batting at No.3 at an average of 55.22 in 176 innings. Only Ricky Ponting has aggregated more runs than Dravid at this batting position – 8,840 at an average of 60.54 in 95 Tests.

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His tally of 22 hundreds while batting at No.3, is exceeded only by Ricky Ponting (31). 
 
Also, Dravid played 94 Tests in succession since making his Test debut against England at Lord's in 1996 till Sri Lanka’s tour to India in 2005-06) -- a world record  for making most Test appearances in a row since making a Test debut, until surpassed by Adam Gilchrist by playing 96 Tests in succession.

He is the first player to post a century each in all the 10 Test-playing countries.

Dravid is also one of the 10 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.

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

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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. He also holds the Indian record for posting three double centuries during the 2003-04 season.

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

He aggregated 300 runs in a Test match once - 305 (233 + 72 n.o.) versus Australia at Adelaide in 2003-04.

Dravid is the only Indian to record four centuries in consecutive Test innings:
- 115 against England, Nottingham, 2002
- 148 against England, Leeds, 2002
- 217 against England, The Oval, 2002
- 100 n.o. against West Indies, Bombay, 2002-03

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Dravid is one of the only two players to record ten 90s in the Test cricket - the other being Australia’s Steve Waugh.

He is the only Indian to make 600 runs in an overseas series twice - 619 (123.80) in four 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 5,000 runs or more away from home, his batting average of 56.90 is the best – 6,430 runs in 75 Tests.

He holds a fifth wicket partnership record for India - 376 with VVS Laxman against Australia at Kolkata in 2000-01.
 
Also, Dravid 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.