The former Indian coach Rahul Dravid is set to return as Rajasthan Royal head coach before the IPL 2025 season.
Following his end of tenure as India’s coach after the T20 World Cup 2024 win in June this year. Dravid recently signed a deal with the franchise and had conversations on player retentions ahead of the upcoming mega auction.
He has a long-standing working relationship with the RR captain Sanju Samson, who came through the U-19 on Dravid’s watch.
Dravid has served as the captain in IPL 2012, and 2013 and also served as team director and mentor in the 2014 and 2015 seasons. In 2016, Dravid moved to Delhi Daredevils until he became the head of the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru in 2019.
In 2021, he was appointed as Indian men’s head coach and ended his three-year stint by winning the T20 World Cup 2024 in the USA and West Indies.
Rajasthan is also likely to sign former Indian batter Vikram Rathour as the batting coach. the former India selector was part of Dravid’s coaching staff at NCA before he became India’s batting coach in 2019.
Dravid will take charge of Rajasthan Royals in the IPL, while Kumar Sangakkara who has been the director of cricket since 2021 will continue with their franchise and look after the teams in other leagues – Paarl Royals in SA20 and Barbados Royals in the CPL.
Rajasthan Royals has never won the IPL title since their inaugural season in 2008. They have reached the finals once in the 2022 season where they came up as runners with a defeat against Gujarat Titans.
They failed to make it to the finals in the 2023 season and played in the playoffs before being knocked out in Qualifier 2.
