• Source:JND
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Former India captain Rahul Dravid could return to the IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals soon after leaving national team's head coach.

Dravid has recently ended his stint as India's head coach after guiding them to the title success in the T20 World Cup 2024 last month.

If reports are to be believed, talks are going on between Rajasthan and Dravid and an announcement regarding this could be made anytime soon.

This won’t be the first time that Dravid will get involved with IPL's inaugural champions. He was their second captain, having taken over the leadership role from the late Shane Warne.

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At the age of 39, Dravid took over the Rajasthan's captaincy in 2012 and led them in 40 matches of which the franchise won in 23.

He was later appointed as their mentor for two seasons (2014, 2015) before being named coach of India’s U-19 and ‘A’ teams.

Under Dravid's guidance, India won the 2018 Under-19 World Cup before the legendary batter joined the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.

He then took over India's head coach role from Ravi Shastri in 2021 after the conclusion of the T20 World Cup and ended his stint after the same tournament as well in 2024.

He guided the Men in Blue to the final of the semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2022 and the final of the World Test Champioship and ODI World Cup 2023. India finally ended the 11-year-old wait for an ICC title during his time as head coach.

In a heartwarming gesture, Dravid decided to let go of half of the INR 5 crore prize money that he was to get from the pool of Rs. 125 crore that the BCCI announced for the T20 World Cup-winning Indian team.

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He reportedly asked the board to reduce his cash reward to the INR 2.5 crore as he didn't want to get more money in comparison to the other members of the coaching staff.

Notably, Rajasthan currently doesn't have a head coach with former Sri Lanka captain serving as their Director of Cricket since 2021. Shane Bond and Trevor Penny are their assistant coaches.

Earlier, it was speculated that Dravid might join Kolkata Knight Riders as their mentor in a direct swap after Gautam Gambhir took over India's head coach role.