Rajasthan Royals Sign Rahul Dravid As Head Coach: Former head coach of the Indian Cricket Team, Rahul Dravid, is turning back the clock as he will be returning to IPL side Rajasthan Royal as their head coach for the 2025 season.
Reports have emerged that Dravid, who was the Royals’ mentor for two seasons in 2014 and 2015, has signed a deal with the franchise and has already had conversations with the ownership about the retentions and targets for the 2025 IPL mega auction.
The Wall has recently ended a successful stint with Team India as their head coach. Taking the national team job after years of impressing as the U-19 and India ‘A’ coach, he led India to the semi-final of the 2022 T20 World Cup. In the 2023 ODI World Cup, the Men in Clue were by far the best team, comprehensively winning every match before losing the final to Australia.
After that heartbreak, the legendary Indian batter announced that the 2024 T20 World Cup would be his last tournament as the India head coach. And he led the team to a fantastic victory as the nation won its second T20 World title. Having won his first World Cup at the senior level in any capacity, Rahul Dravid left the job as promised.
Rajasthan Royals Sign Rahul Dravid As Head Coach
Now, free from the excruciating year-long work of being the Indian head coach, Dravid is probably looking for a part-time assignment, which only keeps him busy for a few months of the year. And what better assignment for that than being the India coach?
The 51-year-old has had a long history with the Rajasthan Royals; while he was not with the team for the first three seasons, which included their only league win in 2008, he joined up with the Jaipur-based franchise in 2011, playing under Shane Warner in his first season.
In 2012, he became the full-time captain of the Royals, and in 2013, he led the franchise to the IPL playoffs for the first time since their title-winning season, losing to eventual champions the Mumbai Indians in qualifier 2. That year, he also captained the team to the final of the Champions League T20, where they lost to MI once again.
Rahul Dravid also has a long history with Rajasthan Royal captain Sanju Samson. Not only was Dravid Sanju’s first captain in the IPL, but the former Indian captain also coached Sanju through being a U-10 player, a regular in the ‘A’ squad, and even his time in the national team.
The question now is, what will happen to Kumar Sangakkara, who has been the franchise’s Director of Cricket since 2021? The Sri Lankan legend has led the franchise to two playoff appearances, which includes a final appearance in 2022. He also helmed the successful 2022 mega auction, following which RR looked like the best team in the league.
Sanga will continue to stay with the Royals franchise and will look after the other affiliated teams in other leagues, like the Paarl Royal in SA20 and the Barbados Royals in CPL.
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