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.

As the new international season commenced, the first and foremost challenge for the newly appointed captain and vice-captain, Ganguly and Dravid, was to pull the team out of the shadows of the match fixing scandal. Indian team played 2000 ICC Knockout Trophy with vigour and showed a lot of character beating Kenya, Australia and South Africa in consecutive matches to reach the Finals. Although India lost to New Zealand in the Finals, their spirited performance in the tournament helped restoring public faith back in Indian cricket. Dravid played his part scoring 157 runs in 4 matches at an average of 52.33, including 2 fifties. Dravid played the first two matches of 2000-01 Coca-Cola Champions Trophy and scored 85 runs in the 2nd match against Zimbabwe opening the innings before getting injured while fielding at slips forcing him to miss the rest of the tournament.  India started off the new Test season with a 9-wicket win against Bangladesh. Dravid played a brisk inning of 49 ball 41 runs, including 5 fours and a six, chasing a target of 63 runs. However, Dravid's poor patch truly ended in the next Test series against Zimbabwe, which was also the first series for John Wright as the new Indian coach. Wright was instrumental in Dravid's association with Kent earlier this year. Dravid returned the favour by recommending his name to the BCCI for the post of national team coach. By now, Dravid had played 8 Tests since his last hundred against New Zealand at Mohali scoring just 350 runs at a paltry average of 23.33 without a single fifty plus inning. The Indian vice-captain ended the run drought and welcomed the new Indian coach with a double hundred - Dravid's first. He scored 200 not out in the first inning and 70 not out in the second inning guiding India to a comfortable 9-wicket victory against Zimbabwe. He scored 162 in the drawn Second test to end the series with an average of 432.00 - highest batting average by an Indian in a Test series.  Dravid scored just a solitary fifty in the second of the five match bilateral ODI series between India and Zimbabwe. However, the series proved to be a milestone in Dravid's career. Dravid captained the Indian team for the first time in the 5th match of the series as the regular captain Ganguly had to sit out due to one match suspension. Riding on Agarkar's all-round performance, Dravid led India to a 39 run victory in his maiden ODI as Indian captain.

Who was helping him
Ganguly and Dravid, was to pull the team out of the shadows of the match fixing scandal.