Rahul Dravid To Take Up IPL 2025 Job? 4 Franchises Who Can Sign India’s T20 World Cup-Winning Coach

Rahul Dravid was the India head coach when the Men in Blue lost in 2023 ODI World Cup final and won T20 World Cup last week.

New Delhi: Rahul Dravid went out with his head held high after guiding India to their second T20 World Cup win last week with a win over South Africa in the final. Notably, it was Dravid’s first World Cup win in three attempts. He was a part of the Indian team that played in 2003 World Cup final against Australia. 20 years later, Dravid was the head coach when Rohit Sharma’s men lost to Australia at home in the final. With his India job done and dusted, what’s next for Dravid?

Certainly, Dravid will not sit idle as there are a number of Indian Premier League franchises are interested in having Dravid at the helm for the upcoming season of IPL. Dravid isn’t new to playing the role off the field in IPL. He has served as mentors to Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals). It won’t be a surprise if Dravid takes up the coaching job in IPL 2025.

According to reports, four IPL franchises have agreed to talk with Dravid. Although it is yet to be known which are the four teams, let’s look at the possibilities.

Punjab Kings

One of the franchises that directly comes to the mind is Punjab Kings. Since the inception of IPL, Punjab Kings’ best finish came in 2008 (playoffs) and in 2014 (runners-up) while in rest of the seasons, the franchise didn’t make the final four. With a mega auction happening before IPL 2025, Punjab Kings would be looking for a major overhaul and Dravid could be the perfect man to guide the side.

Delhi Capitals

The combination of Ricky Ponting as head coach and Sourav Ganguly as mentor seems to have not clicked for Delhi Capitals for the past two seasons. After finishing in the bottom half of the table in 2023, Delhi Capitals have improved a little bit by finishing fifth in 2024 IPL season. Like Punjab Kings, Delhi are yet to win a title in the past 17 years and would be eager to put their hands on the trophy next year. Dravid could replace Ponting as the head coach in IPL 2025. This is the same franchise he had mentored once in the past. Notably, it was Ganguly who made Dravid the India head coach while the former was a BCCI president in 2021. Earlier, during their playing days, both Dravid and Ganguly have bailed India on many occasions and it won’t be a surprise to the fans if the duo comes together once again at Delhi Capitals.

Kolkata Knight Riders

KKR’s name might not have been on the list had Gautam Gambhir not been liked with the Indian team to replace Rahul Dravid as head coach. The return of Gambhir worked wonders for KKR as they lifted their third title in IPL 2024. Although nothing has been official yet, in case Gambhir joins Indian team, Dravid could be the like-for-like replacement for the Shahrukh Khan co-owned franchise.

Mumbai Indians

The five-time IPL champions definitely need a change. After their title triumph in 2020, Mumbai Indians have bowed out in the league stage thrice in the past four seasons. The management replaced Rohit Sharma with Hardik Pandya as captain but the move didn’t help as the latter was a victim of constant booing from the fans. As a result, the negativity impacted the whole unit, thus finishing on the bottom of the table. The fact that Dravid worked with both Hardik and Rohit in India’s T20 World Cup 2024 title-winning campaign could work well at Mumbai Indians.