Legendary Indian batter and former Indian cricket team head coach Rahul Dravid is all set to return to the Indian Premier League franchise Rajasthan Royals for the 2025 season, reported ESPNCricInfo on 4 September.
According to the report, the T20 World Cup winning head coach has recently signed a deal with his former franchise, with whom he was associated in IPL 2012 and 2013 as captain. Following this, he also had mentored the IPL franchise as team director and mentor for the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
Not only this, the Rajasthan Royals are also keen to sign Vikram Rathour as an assistant coach. Meanwhile, director of cricket since 2021 – Kumar Sangakkara – will look after their teams in other leagues, including the Paarl Royals in the SA20 and Barbados Royals in the CPL, added the report.
Dravid after 2016:
After Dravid left the Rajasthan Royal in 2106, he joined Delhi Daredevil, where he stayed until 2019. After this, Dravid was made the head of the National Cricket Academy until he was appointed the head coach of the Indian cricket team in 2021.
During his tenure as head coach of the Indian cricket team, India reached the finals of the World Test Championship, won the Men’s Asia Cup 2023, reached the finals of the ICC men’s World Cup 2023, and lifted the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.
He retired in July 2024 after the Indian team returned home after winning the T20 World Cup in the West Indies.
Dravid will reunite with Sanju Samson, who is all set to be retained as RR captain for another season. Samson blossomed first under the 52-year-old.
Rahul Dravid stats:
According to the ICC, Rahul Dravid played 164 test matches for India between 1996 and 2012, and scored 13,288 runs at an average of 52.3. His best score was 270, and he has scored 36 Test centuries.
In the 344 ODIs, Rahul Dravid scored 10,899 runs at an average of 39.2. Though he hit only 12 centuries, he has been the wall of Indian cricket for years.
He played only 1 T20I and scored 31 runs, while scored 2,174 runs in 89 IPL matches between 2008-13. He had scored 11 half-centuries in IPL and his highest was an unbeaten 75 runs.