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"Do We Have An RCB Player?" Rahul Dravid To Include An RCB Player In RR's Playing XI?

Arnav Chopra

Virat Kohli and Rahul Dravid (Source: @IPL/X.com)Virat Kohli and Rahul Dravid (Source: @IPL/X.com)

Current head coach of the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, Rahul Dravid has mocked his former franchise, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). Ahead of the crucial encounter between RCB and RR at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru, Dravid has openly called for including former RCB players in the side.

Rahul Dravid Wants RCB Players In RR's Playing XI

For the upcoming high-voltage clash between the two royals of the Indian Premier League, the Bengaluru and Rajasthan Royals are gearing up for match number 42 to be played on Thursday.

However, before this high-profile encounter, the head coach of the Rajasthan Royal side, Rahul Dravid has taken a dig at the RCB side for their poor record at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

As for the RCB side, their former players have performed against them time and again, which prompted Dravid to call for the inclusion of a Bengaluru player in the side for this encounter. A former RCB player might be helpful in conditions at Chinnaswamy, considering he would be someone who has played there before and knows about the whereabouts of the venue.

“Do we have an RCB player from last time? Play him in the XI straightaway,"

Ahead of this encounter, Dravid spoke in the pre-match press conference and mentioned the familiarity of players joining new sides, or lack of it, in this season has been crucial, considering the home advantage has been minimal for many sides, including Kolkata Knight Riders, Chennai Super Kings, and in fact, for Rajasthan Royals themselves.

“I think it depends from ground to ground. I’m not sure what specific franchises might have wanted from their curators, so to speak, but home advantage, generally, the teams are new as well right after a big auction," he said.

Moreover, Dravid went on to explain the fact that former KKR players, Nitish Rana and Phil Salt, are doing wonderfully well for their respective sides in Rajasthan and RCB after joining their new franchises in the last year's mega auction.

So, in that case, both Salt and Rana are new to these venues, having not played there quite often before, considering they joined the sides just recently. He concluded:

“It’s the first year after a big auction, so for a lot of the players as well, even though they may be your home players, they are playing for those teams or those grounds for the first time. I’m just using him (Salt) as an example. We have players in our team, for example, someone like Nitish Rana (KKR) was not with us, and he’s playing for us this year, so for him, Jaipur is kind of a new ground."

Rajasthan On The Brink Of Elimination

After losing six of the eight matches, the Rajasthan Royals side is at eighth position on the table with just two wins, as they have only four points and a net run rate of -0.633. Another loss will potentially make their campaign tough, as it would be a much more difficult task to qualify with 14 points after the end of the season.

On the other hand, the RCB are comfortably sitting on fourth position with five wins in eight matches and are looking like a serious contender in this year's IPL.