Indian skipper captain Rahul Dravid will be the sixth Indian to play 100 Tests in the third match of the series against England in Mumbai beginning March 18.
"To reach 100 Tests is a huge honour and something I never imagined when I started in my first Test," Dravid said.
The Bangalore batsman, who is also jostling with Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis for the highest contemporary average in Tests, all over 57, says he got some of his temperament from his parents.
The focus, tenacity and intelligence that personify his batting may be characteristics handed down from his mother Pushpa, who at the age of 55 did a doctorate PhD in art, The Sunday Telegraph wrote on Sunday.
She has now retired but taught architecture at Bangalore University for 30 years. "She's very determined woman so I guess that's something that rubbed off," he said.
"I get some of my temperament from my dad as well, who's a relaxed sort of person. He's retired now but he was a food scientist for a company that made jams and juice, that sort of stuff; he worked there for 30 years.
"I think the environment they helped create for me when I was a kid, encouraging me to play cricket and whatever I wanted to do, helped. I would not have been able to achieve any of this without the support of my parents, family or my wife."
{{/usCountry}}"I think the environment they helped create for me when I was a kid, encouraging me to play cricket and whatever I wanted to do, helped. I would not have been able to achieve any of this without the support of my parents, family or my wife."
{{/usCountry}}He loved cricket straight away and most of his early memories are with a bat and ball in hand. His father played cricket at university and he would later take Rahul to first class games. He still enjoys watching cricket irrespective of whether his son is playing.
Dravid made to the Karnataka first-class team at 17 and it was then that he focused solely on batting. Though he later donned wicket-keeping gloves again when Sourav Ganguly wanted him to keep in one-day internationals.
Off-spin and 'keeping were not the only distractions to his burgeoning batting talent. Dravid was also a talented school hockey player and was selected for the Under-15 state team.
"A couple of my classmates in the hockey team went on to play for India - one of them actually captained India," Dravid said.
"We won all the tournaments. It was only when I went to university (to study commerce) that I stuck to one sport."
While coach Greg Chappell keeps him well stocked with books on teams, management and captaincy, his five-month-old son Samit takes up most of his spare time, a responsibility that came his way at the same time as the captaincy of India.
He's deeply grateful to his wife, Vijeta, who has taken a break from her career as a surgeon to raise their son.
"She's been superb and that's really helped me. She's had to go through a lot of it on her own."