After successfully guiding the Indian team to T20 World Cup 2024 triumph as head coach, Rahul Dravid is reportedly gearing up for a new adventure in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Since his tenure as the head coach of the Indian team came to an end, Dravid has been linked with multiple franchises in the T20 league. Earlier, reports suggested that the batting great could decide to join Kolkata Knight Riders, especially as the franchise saw their mentor Gautam Gambhir leave the team to fill the void left by Dravid in the Indian team as head coach. But, it has now been reported that Dravid is in talks with his former IPL side Rajasthan Royals.
“Talks are going on between RR and Dravid, and an announcement in this regard is round the corner,” Times of India quoted a source as saying.
As Dravid hunts for a new adventure, Gambhir has begun his stint as the Indian team’s head coach. He flew to Sri Lanka with the other members of the Indian team ahead of the white-ball assignment. Before the team’s departure, Gambhir did admit he has some big shoes to fill, considering what Dravid has done with the Indian team as head coach.
As India lifted the T20 World Cup 2024 title, beating South Africa in the final, Dravid did joke about being ‘jobless’ from the next month, and asked reporters if they had any offers. A man of the talent of Dravid, and the gold-worthy experience in Indian cricket, franchises are understandably lining up to rope him into the team.
Dravid didn’t want to continue as the Indian team’s head coach as he didn’t want to spend 10 months a year travelling, keeping himself away from the family. But, the Indian Premier League is different. In the T20 league, Dravid only needs to be with the franchise for 2-3 months a year, a prospect he could fancy.
The former India captain has worked as a mentor and coach with IPL franchises in the past. Dravid was the coach of Delhi Daredevils franchise before leaving the job in 2017 over ‘conflict of interest’. Since ending his IPL career, Dravid has worked as the coach of India’s junior teams, including Under-19 and India A.
He was most recently working as the head of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru before taking up the India job in 2021.
Now linked with the Rajasthan Royals, it would be interesting to see on what capacity would the former India head coach work with the franchise.
