London, August 21: As the four-Test series between England and India draws to a close, the visitors will be hard pressed to find anything to say for themselves that doesn’t involve the name Rahul Sharad Dravid. Batting resiliently in the final Test, Dravid provided the perfect symbol for his role in the series by carrying his bat valiantly even as England enforced the follow-on in anticipation of a series whitewash. With an unbeaten 146 in the first innings in the openers’ position, the bedrock of the Indian batting succumbed early in the second innings, playing in the openers’ slot once again. The series provides a fitting summary for a career that has weathered challenges admirably, serving as a guiding light for generations of batsmen to come. Here’s a look at the numbers that matter from Dravid’s momentous innings.

• Rahul Dravid (146*) scored his 35th Test century, which puts him at the fourth place in the list of leading century-makers, ahead of Sunil Gavaskar and Brian Lara. Only Sachin Tendulkar (51), Jacques Kallis (40) and Ricky Ponting (39) have scored more centuries than Dravid.

• At 38 years, 222 days, Dravid is the third oldest player to score a century for India. Only Vijay Merchant and Vinoo Mankad have scored centuries at an older age for India.

• The century was Dravid’s third of the series. He had made 103* at Lord’s and 117 at Nottingham. This was the second time that Dravid has scored three centuries in a series on England soil; he had performed a similar feat in 2002. Dravid thus emulated Don Bradman in scoring three centuries in a series in England on two occasions (the Don had done so in 1930 & 1938). Surprisingly, no England batsman has achieved this feat.

• Dravid has now scored six centuries on England soil. Among the overseas batsmen only Don Bradman (11) and Steve Waugh (7) have scored more centuries, while Gordon Greenidge has also made six.

• Dravid has now scored seven centuries against England. He now equals Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most centuries in India-England Tests.

• During his innings, Dravid became the first batsman to face 30,000 balls in Test cricket. His tally now stands at 30,090 in 273 innings of 157 Tests.

• Dravid remained unbeaten at the fall of the 10th wicket after opening the innings. He thus provided the third instance of an Indian batsman carrying his bat through a complete innings. Sunil Gavaskar and Virender Sehwag are the others to accomplish this feat.

• India reached the 300-mark for the first time in the series in seven innings.

• Dravid became the first Indian, and seventh batsman overall, to carry his bat and open again in the second innings after following-on.

• More than 24% of the runs scored by India in the series have come off Dravid’s bat – 461 out of 1890.

• Dravid faced 965 balls and batted for nearly 25 hours in the series.

• This was the tenth time that India were made to follow-on against England. The last such instance had come at Lord’s in 1982.