Rajasthan Royals head coach Rahul Dravid has emphasised the importance of personal growth in a cricketer’s journey and stated that understanding oneself off the field is just as vital as performing on it.
“Just being good at cricket and just practising cricket will off course get you certain distance,” Dravid said in a recent episode of JioHotstar’s Halla Bol.
“The great players that I have had the privilege of working with, one of the common things I see in all of them is that they truly know who they are as people,” he added.
Dravid, who played for the Royals from 2011 to 2013 and later mentored the side until 2015 before taking over the reins as head coach ahead of the 2025 season, has long championed the development of young talents.
That philosophy is visible in the current Royals squad, with teen sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi breaking through and Riyan Parag showing glimpses of his leadership qualities under Dravid’s watchful eyes.
“If you know who you are and grow as a person, you give yourself the best chance to maximise your potential,” Dravid said. “You need to understand yourself as a person both on and off the field.”
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A former Head of Cricket at the National Cricket Academy, Dravid, who has coached both India’s U-19 and senior teams with great success, has consistently backed a player-first approach focused on individual development rather than comparisons.
“It’s individual. You can’t compare yourself with other people,” he said. “Your job is to get the best out of yourself and the gifts you have been given – and that comes from growing as a cricketer and as a person.”
It’s that very philosophy - investing in potential and turning it into performance - that has come to define Rajasthan Royals' identity over the years.
