Legendary South Africa National Cricket Team batsman AB de Villiers has made a colossal claim on the exit of the head coach Rahul Dravid from the Rajasthan Royals (RR).
AB de Villiers feels that the batting great Rahul Dravid was actually kicked out of the Rajasthan Royals (RR) after the team failed to meet expectations under his guidance.
Rahul Dravid and Rajasthan Royals part ways
On Saturday, August 30, the Rajasthan Royals (RR) announced that they have decided to part ways with the head coach, Rahul Dravid, ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026.
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Dravid was officially named as the new Rajasthan Royals head coach in September 2024, and he signed a multi-year deal with the franchise.
It was a homecoming for Rahul Dravid as he has been associated with the franchise for a long time. In 2011, he was roped in by the team before being named as the captain for the IPL 2012 and 2013 seasons. After that, he served as the team mentor and director in 2014 and 2015.
Expectations were pretty high from Rajasthan Royals under Rahul Dravid in 2025, who joined the team on the back of a T20 World Cup 2024 triumph with the India National Cricket Team.
However, the Rajasthan Royals had a poor auction and performed terribly in IPL 2025, finishing in ninth spot on the points table with just four wins in 14 matches.
In the statement, RR revealed that they offered a broader strategic role to Rahul Dravid, but he chose not to accept it. As per reports, Kumar Sangakkara could be appointed as the new head coach, but nothing is confirmed as of yet.
He’s a larger-than-life kind of character – Rahul Dravid
Speaking on his social media show ‘360 LIVE,’ AB de Villiers speculated that Dravid may have been sacked after he rejected the broader role and expressed his desire to be part of the team management.
“It sort of sounds to me like it was an owner or management kind of call. They gave him an option to have a broader role in the team. He sort of turned that down. Maybe he was upset because he really wanted to be still involved. He wanted to be in the dugout. Maybe it was his call. I don’t know. We’ll. I’m pretty sure we’ll find out once we get him talking about it in the future. Maybe. But Rahul, obviously, is leaving big footsteps behind, big shoes to fill,” AB de Villiers said.
“He’s a larger-than-life kind of character, and he knows a lot about the game. And I personally have spoken to youngsters before on this show as well. Actually, some of my interviews were with a lot of people who spoke about him having a huge influence on their careers. So, yeah, you will definitely be missed.”
Maybe they want to shake things up a bit and move forward with that – AB de Villiers
AB de Villiers further explained with a football analogy how Rahul Dravid was kicked out due to underperformance and opined that the franchise will go through a major shakeup.
“Sometimes you see it in the Premier League as well, the football league, where the managers and the coaches are always under huge pressure to perform and to bring trophies home. And once they don’t, they start hearing from the owners and whoever makes the decisions for the various leagues, sorry, franchises, so we don’t know the facts really. It sounds to me like the fact that he turned down that other role, sort of like he was kicked out, which is never ideal.
“But maybe Rajasthan have different ideas for the upcoming season. Maybe they want to shake things up a bit and move forward with that. I don’t think they had the greatest auction last time, as they let go of some incredible players, the likes of Jos Butler, to name but a few, which I thought was a mistake. They sometimes are a good thing, but not overly aggressive for you. You can let one or two go, but they. They let a huge bulk of their team go at once, I think, a gradual sort of decline.”
