As per the latest reports, former India batter Rahul Dravid is likely to join the Rajasthan Royals as their head coach for the upcoming season of IPL 2025. If the deal works out, then Dravid will be joining a franchise where he has a long history as both a player and mentor.
Dravid was initially signed by Rajasthan Royals as a player and captain in the 2011 edition of the IPL. He not only proved to be a good batter during this time but also handled the leadership of his team astutely. Under his leadership, RR won 23 out of their 40 games. He had compiled 1276 runs with the Royals, which included seven fifties.
In 2014 he was appointed mentor and continued in that capacity for two years. During his mentorship, Royals showed much-improved performance and qualified for the playoffs in 2015. Talented youngsters like Sanju Samson, Deepak Hooda, and Karun Nair learned a lot from his experience and emerged as fine players.
Now, speaking about the current situation of Rajasthan Royals, Kumar Sangakkara had taken up dual roles for a very long time as a director of cricket and head coach. Now, with the induction of Dravid as head coach, Sangakkara is going to get some relief from his responsibilities to focus directly on the franchise and overall player development.
The influence of Dravid does not stop here; he has played a huge role in the developmental pipeline of Indian cricket, having coached India U-19 and India A.
He has recently been the head coach of the national side of India as well. In his tenure with the national side, he saw quite a bit of success—making the final of the ODI World Cup 2023, where they lost to Australia, and winning T20 World Cup 2024 by beating the same team in the final to avenge their loss in the ODI World Cup.
The 51-year-old is going to be keen to instil the same kind of winning mentality and champion mindset within the Rajasthan Royals camp, looking to bring back the glory days to a team that hasn’t won any trophy since the inaugural edition in 2008.
Dravid’s return to the Rajasthan Royals is going to help the team at multiple levels. Having been known as a mentor of young talent, his presence is going to be quite instrumental in developing young talent within the team.
His immense knowledge of the game will add great value to set up plans for the team and its implementation on the field. Not only that, Dravid’s composed approach and leadership skills will imbibe stability and morale into the team.
While it certainly is a step in the right direction to add Dravid to the mix, this move definitely does not come free of challenges. His strategies will have to be integrated within what Sangakkara has put down for them as a team. As much as Dravid’s results are going to matter, so are they going to be expected almost immediately, given the competitive nature of the IPL.
His association with the franchise is surely expected to improve the chances of the team doing well in the upcoming IPL season. After all, the Royals had a tough time in IPL 2024 as they won eight of their first nine matches before they went on to win only one out of their next seven games of the season. They finished third in the IPL 2024 points table before bowing out of the tournament with a defeat to SRH in Qualifier 2.
But a bigger challenge in front of Dravid will be to set up a winning squad, as the team will have to release the majority of its players ahead of the next mega auction in IPL 2025. This also gives him a golden opportunity to build the squad of his liking rather than working with an already existing squad.
With the Royals getting ready for the auctions and the IPL 2025, the fans will be keenly watching how Dravid shapes the journey of this team.
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