Rahul Dravid, whose tenure as India's head coach ended with the Men in Blue winning the T20 World Cup 2024, has reportedly received multiple offers from IPL franchises to join their support staff and one such franchise is the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), the IPL 2024 champions.
Under Rahul Dravid’s guidance, the Indian team won the Asia Cup in 2023 and reached the finals of the ICC World Test Championship and the ICC World Cup last year. India also played in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup in 2022.
On the other hand, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will be without their mentor Gautam Gambhir next year, as the former KKR captain is the front-runner for the next Indian head coach job. Gambhir was roped in as the mentor of the Knight Riders before the start of the 2024 season, with co-owner Shah Rukh reportedly giving him a 10-year plan.
However, with BCCI approaching Gambhir to become the next India coach, the cricketer opted to serve the country.
But his departure will leave KKR with a big void to fill. And in an attempt to fill that void, the KKR officials have reportedly approached Rahul Dravid to become the next mentor of the team.
In a report by News 18 Bangla, several IPL franchises are keen to hire Dravid as coach or mentor ahead of the 2025 season. The Kolkata Knight Riders also have him on the radar, though no concrete discussion has taken place as yet.
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.
While the BCCI was interested in Rahul Dravid continuing as the head coach, Dravid didn't want to do so, as wasn’t keen on spending 10 months a year traveling, keeping himself away from the family.
But the IPL is a different thing, where Dravid will be part of an IPL franchise for only 2-3 months.
In previous years, Dravid has been associated as a mentor and coach with IPL franchises. He was the coach and mentor of Rajasthan Royals and was the mentor of Delhi Daredevils from 2016-2017. Since ending his IPL career, Dravid has worked as the coach of India's junior teams, including Under-19 and India A.
