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Dravid, who was appointed as RR’s head coach last year, parted ways with the Jaipur-based franchise on August 30, 2025.
Rahul Dravid parted ways with Rajasthan Royals on August 30, 2025. (Picture Credit: Sportzpics)
Legendary Indian cricketer, former captain and head coach Rahul Dravid parted ways with Rajasthan Royals as head coach on Saturday, August 30. Dravid was appointed as RR’s head coach after his contract as head coach of the Indian men’s cricket team ended last year. But in his first season as head coach, Dravid failed to produce results, and the Royals finished ninth in the IPL 2025 points table after managing to win only four out of 14 matches.
Reacting to the news of Dravid’s exit from the Royals camp, former South African wicketkeeper-batter and captain AB de Villiers made an explosive claim on Sunday. According to the former Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru batter, Dravid was sort of ‘kicked out’ by Rajasthan Royals after he refused to take the ‘broader role’ offered to him by the franchise.
“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,” De Villiers said on his social media show 360 LIVE.
“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.”
De Villiers, like many greats and experts of the game, also feels that the Royals didn’t have a great auction in 2025, and they let go of some incredible players with Jos Buttler.
“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.”
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