3 biggest areas of concern for Rahul Dravid as Rajasthan Royals' new head coachÂ
After helping India men end their trophy drought with the 2024 T20 World Cup title and stepping down with some lows and the biggest high on his CV, Rahul Dravid was always going to be in high demand in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Ultimately, he chose to go back to his former team, the Rajasthan Royals (RR).
He clearly has unfinished business at the Royals -- remember the cap throw? -- and it's not too dissimilar to his assignment with the Men in Blue. The move makes so much sense from both the Royals (because of their young core) and Dravid (who doesn't want to spend the entire year away from family) but is the India legend a silver bullet, who can magically curate a trophy in IPL 2025?
He could well be. But before that, he'll need to solve some blatant issues that marred the Royals last season with the potential to do the same again this year.
Check the biggest possible concerns for Rahul Dravid here:
#3 Keeping the core together
When every IPL team owner was allowed to voice their opinion on the number of retentions they thought should be allowed before the mega auction for the 2025 season, the Royals would almost certainly have been among those asking for the maximum possible.
A big reason behind their recent competitive transformation has been their development of players. They have nurtured young talents like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, and Dhruv Jurel from a very young age, instead of buying superstars in the auction, which has helped them utilize their resources on specialists and better overseas talent.
But that also means that, unlike other franchises who have a smaller core of players, the Royals have a huge pool of talent they won't want to lose ahead of a mega auction. The likes of Jaiswal and even Sandeep Sharma, who came in as a cheap injury replacement, would cost much, much more in the mega auction, altering the team's balance.
As the new head coach, one of Dravid's biggest challenges would be making sure the team retains as much of its core as possible whether through retentions or by getting them back in the auction. That would require a lot of tough calls -- some fan-favorites might have to be let go of -- and there could be a ton of debate over every small detail.
Rahul will need to start putting in the work now and align the team to his vision for the auction and beyond.
#2 Creating a squad less susceptible to injuries and departures
There were a lot of intertwining reasons behind the Royals' second-half slump, the loss of momentum and the eventual second Qualifier exit. But two crucial ones were a) injury and national duty-enforced absence of some key players like Jos Buttler, Sandeep Sharma, and Nandre Burger and b) the Royals' poor reactions to those situations.
For example, in the Qualifier, they had Tom Kohler-Cadmore opening in the place of Buttler when they could've let Dhruv Jurel go up top and brought in hard-hitting left-hander Shubham Dubey in the middle-order to counter SunRisers Hyderabad's left-arm-spinners, who eventually won the latter the match.
Throughout the season, too, the Royals were innovative with their use of the Impact Player rule but it often felt like they were overdoing it. In some games, they seemed over-dependent on their Impact Player winning them the game in the second innings, which stopped working after the season's first half.
Dravid is an excellent squad builder and now he'd need to be mindful of almost picking two playing 11s, one to field at the start, and one with as many like-for-like replacements as possible. Buttler's full availability would again be in doubt and the Royals would need players who could come into the 11 without altering the team's dimensions too much.
#1 Making the team perform under pressure
This is something he'd know of extremely well from his time with the Indian men's team. An ICC trophy was the least and the most important demand from Dravid when he joined in and that required him to help the team shed its pressure points.
Dravid will need to do a similar magic at the Royals. After spending most of the seasons in the bottom half of the table post the inaugural title in 2008, the Royals have seen two qualifications and a runners-up finish in the last few years.
In each of those instances, their decision-making in the high-pressure games has let them down. In hindsight, that could be seen as one of the drawbacks of having one of the youngest squads in the league.
Dravid would need to instill a similar sense of freedom for his Royals pupils as he did with the Men in Blue, while also perhaps bringing in more players with a history of coming clutch in knock-out games.
It won't be just about man-management but also about creating a winning culture on and off the field and putting in personal efforts to help set plans for the players. If he could do that, he'd go down in history as an even bigger IPL and coaching legend.