Dravid was born in a Marathi family in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. His family later moved to Bangalore, Karnataka, where he was raised. His mother tongue is Marathi. Dravid's father worked for a company that makes jams and preserves, giving rise to the later nickname Jammy.

Dravid had been knocking at the doors of Indian national cricket team for quite a while with his consistent performance in domestic cricket. So much so, that when the selectors announced the Indian team for the 1996 World Cup sans Dravid, an Indian daily newspaper carried a headline - "Rahul Dravid gets a raw deal". However, they could not ignore him any longer after the World Cup. 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. He followed it up with another failure in the next game scoring just four runs before getting run out against Pakistan. In contrast to his ODI debut, his Test debut was rather successful one. Dravid was selected for the Indian squad touring England on the backdrop of a consistent performance in domestic cricket for five years. Fine performances in the tour games including fifties against Gloucestershire and Leicestershire failed to earn him a place in the team for the First Test. He finally made his Test debut at Lord's on 20 June 1996 against England in the Second Test of the series at the expense of injured senior batsman Sanjay Manjrekar. Manjrekar, who was suffering from an ankle injury, was to undergo a fitness test on the morning of the Second Test. Dravid had already been informed that he would play if Manjrekar fails the test. As fate would have it, Manjrekar failed the fitness test. Ten minutes before the toss, Sandeep Patil, the then Indian coach, went up to Dravid to inform him that he was indeed going to make his debut that day. Patil recalled years later: I told him he will be playing. His face lit up. I cannot forget that moment. Coming in to bat at no. 7, he forged important partnerships with another debutante Sourav Ganguly and his Karnataka teammates Kumble and Srinath securing a vital first innings lead for his team. Batting for more than six hours, he scored 95 runs before getting out to the bowling of Chris Lewis. Dravid was just five runs away from a landmark debut hundred when he nicked a Lewis delivery to the keeper and walked even before umpire's decision. When asked about the walk, he quipped, "Everybody at the ground had heard the nick". He also took his first catch in Test cricket in this match to dismiss Nasser Hussain off the bowling of Srinath. In the next tour game against British Universities, Dravid scored a hundred. He held his position in the playing XI in the Third Test at Nottingham despite Manjrekar's return and went on to score 84 runs in the first innings of the Test. Dravid concluded a successful debut series with an impressive average of 62.33 from two Test matches.

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