Rahul Dravid's retirement
Rahul Dravid's Test career in pictures
Lord's, June 22, 1996: Rahul Dravid made his Test debut at Lord's and impressed immediately with a stroke-filled 95. His love affair with England would continue till his last series there, in 2011 •Getty Images
Mumbai, March 1, 2001: In the first Test of Australia's 2000-01 tour of India, Michael Slater claimed to have caught Dravid at square leg but replays suggested the ball may have bounced. Dravid stood his ground, drawing the wrath of Slater, who thought he should take the fielder's word that the catch was clean•Hamish Blair/Getty Images
Headingley, August 23, 2002: In difficult conditions, Dravid saw off the new ball in an innings that has been lauded as one of his best. Though Sachin Tendulkar scored more runs in the game, Dravid was named Man of the Match for his 148 •Getty Images
Adelaide, December 13, 2003: Responding to Australia's huge first-innings score, Dravid scored his first century down under and converted it into a double•Mark Dadswell/Getty Images
... and delivered India a six-wicket victory and a 1-0 lead in the series in Australia.•Getty Images
India won the series 2-1, their first series victory in Pakistan•Jewel Samad/AFP
Kolkata , March 19, 2005: Dravid's twin centuries against Pakistan in Kolkata 2005 gave India a 195-run victory and the series lead.•Deshakalyan Chowdhury/AFP
Lahore, January 16, 2006: Dravid and Virender Sehwag set the record for the highest opening partnership in Pakistan - 410 in Lahore in 2006. Dravid's unbeaten century was his first as captain•AFP
Perth, January 16, 2008: India win by 72 runs. In the first innings of that Test, Dravid top-scored with 93 in India's total of 330. They eventually took a decisive lead of 118.•AFP
Kingston, June 22, 2011: Dravid hits the 18th of his 21 sixes in Test cricket, at Sabina Park in June 2011. His 112 out of a total of 252 helped set a target that was beyond West Indies. That performance came after he had scored only 120 runs in six innings in South Africa. It helped India win the series 1-0 in the Caribbean.•Associated Press
The Oval, August 21, 2011: At The Oval, with the series lost and the rest of India's batsmen continuing to flounder against swing and seam, Dravid's resistance continued. He made his third century of the tour, an unbeaten 146 as opener, and was only the third Indian to carry his bat. He finished India's 0-4 defeat with 461 runs at an average of 76.•Getty Images
Hamilton, January 4, 1999: In 1999, Dravid became only the third India batsman to score centuries in each innings of a Test, after Vijay Hazare and Sunil Gavaskar, when he scored 190 and 103 not out in Hamilton. Since then the only Indian to repeat the feat is Dravid himself, in 2005•Getty Images
Kolkata, March 14, 2001: At Eden Gardens, India were following on against Australia, facing a 274-run first-innings deficit. Dravid scored 180 and had a 376-run partnership with VVS Laxman that saw the pair bat through the fourth day of the Test •Getty Images
The knock helped India win a
Test in England after 16 years•Paul McGregor/ESPNcricinfo Ltd
... he and Laxman added 303 runs to rescue India from 85 for 4•Hamish Blair/Getty Images
Multan, April 1, 2004: Dravid made the controversial decision to declare in Multan in 2004, leaving Sachin Tendulkar stranded on 194, to push for a win. India eventually won their first Test in Pakistan, by an innings and 52 runs•Jewel Samad/AFP
London, September 7, 2004: Dravid was named the ICC Test player of the year and player of the year in September 2004•AFP
Harare, September 2005: The spat between Ganguly and Greg Chappell, which blew up during the tour of Zimbabwe in 2005, led to Dravid's appointment as India captain ahead of the home series against Sri Lanka in December•AFP
Kingston, July 1, 2006: Dravid passed 9000 Test runs during his twin half-centuries on a difficult Sabina Park pitch, setting up India's 49-run win in the final Test. India's 1-0 series victory was their first in the Caribbean for 36 years •AFP
Mohali, December 19, 2008: 2008 was a poor year for Dravid, but in his final innings of the year, he ended a string of eight failures with a hard fought 136 against England in Mohali.•Getty Images
Lord's, July 23, 2011: In his first Test at Lord's, in 1996, Dravid had made 95. In his last Test there, in 2011, he made his first century at the home of cricket.•Getty Images
Adelaide, January 28, 2012: Dravid played his last Test at Adelaide Oval, in January 2012. He was part of an Indian side blanked 4-0, amid reports of a severe rift between MS Dhoni and Sehwag causing factions among the players. It was not how the consummate team-man would have wished to end his career. •Getty Images
Laxman and Dravid's epic stand led to one of India's most famous wins •Getty Images
The Oval, September 8, 2002: Dravid's third century of the series was a double, and ensured India drew the fourth Test, and thus the series. His 217 was the third of four hundreds in consecutive innings, a record for an India batsman •Paul McGregor/Getty Images
Chasing 230 in the final innings, Dravid fought hard once again ...•Hamish Blair/Getty Images
Rawalpindi, April 15, 2004: Dravid produced his career-best in Rawalpindi in 2004, his 270 leading India to 600 in the first innings, after which they eventually won by an innings and 131 runs•Jewel Samad/AFP
Nagpur, October 29, 2004: Ganguly withdrew from the third Test against Australia and Dravid stood in as captain on a greentop. He was hit by a Michael Kasprowicz bouncer during India's 342-run defeat•Rob Elliott/AFP
Sydney, October 14, 2005: Dravid was part of the World XI that took on Australia in the ICC's Supertest experiment in October 2005•Getty Images
Nottingham, July 31, 2007: Dravid and Ganguly walk off Trent Bridge after completing a seven-wicket victory in July 2007. Under Dravid's captaincy, India maintained their 1-0 lead to win a series in England for the first time since 1986. He resigned the leadership after the tour.•Getty Images
Wellington, April 6, 2009: Dravid broke the record for most catches in Tests, going past Mark Waugh's 181, when he caught Tim McIntosh during the third Test of the 2009 tour of New Zealand. India won the series and Dravid would later become the only player to complete 200 Test catches •Associated Press
Nottingham, July 30, 2011: In the second Test on that tour of England, Dravid's century at Trent Bridge, while opening the innings, gave India the first-innings lead. They went on to lose by 319 runs, though.•Getty Images
Bangalore, March 9, 2012: After 13,288 runs in 164 Tests, Dravid announced his retirement from international cricket, saying: "It is 16 years since I played my first Test match for India and today I feel it is time to move on. Once I was like every other boy in India, with a dream of playing for my country. Yet I could never have imagined a journey so long and so fulfilling."•Associated Press