Most runs by Indian captain on an away tour

#2 Rahul Dravid in West Indies, 2006 (645 runs in 9 matches including 2 hundreds)

The 2006 India tour of the Caribbean islands was historic for Rahul Dravid. Firstly he became the first Indian skipper to win a Test series in the West Indies after 1971 and secondly on the personal front when he surpassed Mohammed Azharuddin for accumulating highest runs as skipper on an away tour.

The tour didn't start all that well for the Men in Blue as after clinching the first one day, engineered on the tenacity of Rahul Dravid who scored a magnificent 105 off 102, went on to lose the next four matches and eventually the series 1-4. However, the Test series saw a different Team India with their captain leading from the front.

India came within one wicket of winning the first Test at Antigua, only to be deprived by a defiant West Indian tail. The second Test at the Gros Islet too was a gripping affair that went down to the last ball.

West Indies came hard at the Indians in the third Test at St Kitt's with Darren Ganga and Ramnaresh Sarwan notching up big hundreds that propelled the hosts to 581 in the first innings, but Brian Lara's decision of not enforcing the follow-on after they had bowled India out for 362, allowed the Indian batsmen to bat out the final day to salvage a draw.

That meant the series was reduced to a one-match shootout, scheduled to be played at Kingston, Jamaica to decide the ultimate winner. On a pitch expected to offer prodigious seam and bounce, Dravid won the toss and decided to bat first. He found himself marking his batting guard in the opening hour with the score reading 2/2.

That soon became 34/3 as Jerome Taylor and Corey Collymore made further inroads. Dravid looked a class apart from his contemporaries as he compiled an awe-inspiring 81 off 215 deliveries to control India's falling innings.

Dravid's innings helped India post 200, which proved to be extremely decisive as the tourists bowled the West Indies out for 103, getting a significant lead of 97 runs in the process. The legendary batsman wasn't done yet as he again found himself at the crease at 6/2, with Taylor nipping out the Indian openers.

With Laxman, Yuvraj and MS Dhoni following suit, Dravid(68 off 166 balls) completed an encore of his first innings and helped his team set up what would eventually turn out to be a series-winning target. Sreesanth and Anil Kumble completed the proceedings for India in the fourth innings as the latter's haul of 6/78 bowled the West Indies out for 219.

The win built on the perseverance and grit of Rahul Dravid broke the 25 years drought of a series win in the Carribean. Indeed a jewel in the crown of Indian Cricket, Dravid scored a total of 645 runs on the tour which included two hundreds but his best knock came in adverse conditions of the fourth Test where his tenacious knock of 68 in the third innings helped India seal the series 1-0.