Jaipur : Former India captain and head coach Rahul Dravid may join Rajasthan Royals (RR) as head coach before IPL 2025. Dravid’s tenure as the head coach of the Indian men’s team ended after winning the 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup in Barbados in June this year. The coaching tenure of former Team India veteran batsman Rahul Dravid has also been successful. It was under his supervision that India won the T20 World Cup 2024. With this, the end of his coaching tenure with Team India was memorable.
‘Dravid has signed the contract’
ESPNcricinfo has learned that Dravid has signed a contract with Rajasthan Royals and has also held discussions with the franchise on player retention ahead of the big auction. The team’s current captain Sanju Samson has a long-standing professional relationship with Dravid. Samson’s early career emerged under Dravid’s tutelage. After retiring from cricket, Dravid served as the team’s mentor in the 2014 and 2015 IPL seasons. He continued to play the same role with Delhi Capitals before becoming the director of the NCA in 2019.
Dravidians have old ties with Rajasthan
Dravid has had a long association with Rajasthan. He has captained Rajasthan in the IPL (2012 and 2013) as well as played the role of their mentor (2014 and 2015). After this, he moved to Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals) in 2016. In 2019, he became the head of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. In 2021, he became the head coach of the Indian team and during his tenure, the Indian team ended the drought of ICC Trophy.
Vikram Rathore’s name is also included in the list
It is being told that the RR team can also include Vikram Rathour among Dravid’s assistant coaches. Rathore was formerly a selector of the Indian team as well as a part of Dravid’s coaching staff at the NCA. While during Dravid’s tenure as Indian coach, Rathore also played the role of batting coach of the Indian team. The current cricket director of the team, Kumar Sangakkara, will remain with the franchise in this role. RR has not won any IPL trophy since the first season of IPL in 2008. However, the team was the runner-up in the year 2022. In 2023, he could not enter the playoffs while in 2024 he was eliminated in the second qualifier.
