Former India head coach Rahul Dravid is all set to make a comeback in the Indian Premier League (IPL) with Rajasthan Royals (RR). Dravid decided not to extend his contract with the BCCI as head coach after taking the team to 2024 T20 World Cup glory.
“Talks are going on between RR and Dravid, an announcement in his regard is round the corner,” reported the Times of India (TOI) citing a source.
Dravid has previously been a player-mentor with the Royals as well.
He joined the Royals in 2011 and played three seasons with them before taking on the mentor role for the next two years. Dravid then went on to join the BCCI as U-19 and India A cricket team coach.
Under Dravid, the India U-19 team reached the 2016 and 2018 World Cup finals and won the latter. The former India skipper then joined the National Cricket Academy (NCA) as chairman before becoming the head coach of the senior team in 2021.
With Dravid as head coach, India’s senior team reached the semifinal of the 2022 T20 World Cup but lost to England by 10 wickets. Under Dravid, India also lost the World Test Championship (WTC) Final for the 2021-23 cycle and the ODI World Cup 2023 final at home.
He eventually went out with a trophy in his hand after India won the recently concluded T20 World Cup by beating South Africa in the final on June 29
Dravid was reportedly going to join IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) earlier. He would have replaced Gautam Gambhir as KKR mentor after the former India opener replaced Dravid as the new India head coach.
Gambhir’s first assignment as the coach will be the upcoming white-ball tour of Sri Lanka which starts with three T20I games on July 27, 28 and 30 and ends with three ODIs on August 2, 4 and 7.