Picture Credit: IPL/RR
In a major announcement from a couple of days ago, Indian cricket legend Rahul Dravid joined Rajasthan Royals as their Head Coach ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season. After leaving the Head Coach role of the Indian cricket team in June of this year, Rahul Dravid reportedly had multiple IPL franchises lining up with a “blank cheque” to avail his services, but he chose to return to coaching with Rajasthan Royals instead.
Notably, Rahul Dravid was an integral part of Rajasthan Royals for three years as a player in the IPL from 2011 to 2013 before he went on to join them as their Head Coach in the 2014 and 2015 seasons. Following a two-year coaching stint in IPL with Delhi Capitals, then called Delhi Daredevils, in 2016 and 2017, Dravid led India’s U-19 team to the Cricket World Cup title in 2018 before taking the role of heading the NCA and India A.
Rahul Dravid led Team India to ICC T20 World Cup 2024 title before joining RR as Head Coach
Following that, Rahul Dravid succeeded Ravi Shastri as the Head Coach of the Indian cricket team, and during his tenure, they reached the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) and ODI World Cup 2023. The crowning moment of his coaching career came in June of this year when he secured the first ICC trophy for India in more than a decade, winning the T20 World Cup 2024.
With his departure as the Head Coach of the Indian cricket team, Rahul Dravid turned down lucrative offers from multiple IPL franchises to join their coaching staff, according to a report from Cricbuzz. In a press release from Rajasthan Royals on their official website, Dravid gave his initial thoughts on joining the IPL franchise as their Head Coach, and said, “I am pleased to be returning to the franchise I have called 'home' for a number of years in the past. After the World Cup, I feel it's the ideal time for me to take on another challenge, and the Royals is the perfect place to do that. ”
It's an exciting opportunity for us to take RR to the next level: Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid sounded quite pleased about the progress made by Rajasthan Royals both on and off the field in the last three years, and said, “A lot of hard work and deliberations from Manoj, Jake, Kumar and the team has gone into the progression that the franchise has made over the past few years. It's an exciting opportunity for us to take this team to the next level given the kind of talent and resources we have at our disposal and I'm looking forward to getting started.”
