IPL 2025: Rajasthan Royals head coach Rahul Dravid on Wednesday suggested that players joining new franchises and unfamiliarity with local conditions could be a reason behind teams struggling to make the most of home advantage in the 2025 season.
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00:00Yeah, it's been good to be back, it's been good to be part of the IPL again, it's been...
00:08The league's grown a lot since I was here 10 years ago.
00:14And it's obviously a 10-team league now, and as we're seeing at this tournament,
00:19you know, some incredibly competitive games, really tight games as well.
00:24It's been fun, and every game, every stadium nearly, the crowds have been full house.
00:29It's been great to see that, great support for the game.
00:33Lots more professional as well, a lot of the teams, players.
00:37When you think about the kind of support that's there for the players now, outside of the field as well.
00:43It's probably grown in leaps and bounds over the years.
00:45So, yeah, it's great to be back and to see it again.
00:49Hi, Rahul.
00:51Rahul, this season especially, there's been a lot of talk about home teams not having the so-called home advantage.
00:57And largely, it's due to the pitch factor.
00:59A lot of people have come in and weighed in their opinions about that.
01:02So, in your thing, what do you think about this?
01:05The home teams not having the home advantage, owing to how the pitches have possibly behaved,
01:11in contrary to what their plans were?
01:13I think it depends from ground to ground, really.
01:16I mean, it just depends on, maybe, you know, I'm not really sure what specific franchises might have wanted from their curators or from their pitches, so to speak.
01:28But, yeah, I think, you know, home advantage, generally, the teams are new as well, right?
01:35I think one of the things about the big auction is that it's the first year of a big auction.
01:40So, for a lot of the players as well, right, even though they may be your home players, they are playing for those teams or on those grounds for the first time, right?
01:48For example, you know, in the case of, say, at RCV, someone like Phil Salt was at KKR and he's coming here for the first time.
01:56Or, I'm just using him as an example. And that would be, we have players in our team, for example, someone like Nitish Rana was not with us and he's playing for us this year.
02:04So, for him, Jaipur is actually kind of a new ground in some ways.
02:08So, maybe sometimes I think that when you just have a big auction and there's a change of squad and a change of team, the home advantage may not be that significant.
02:17But maybe as you go later on into the cycle, maybe you might start seeing that significance a little bit more,
02:22because then your players get to practice and play a little bit more on that compared to the opposition team.
02:27So, you know, sometimes some opposition players who are coming from other franchises but who have been at Jaipur before or someone who have been at RCV before
02:36might have played more at RCV than some of the local RCV players because they're playing for the first year.
02:41So, maybe that could be a factor as well that some teams are sort of home advantage is not that prevalent this time.
02:49But also, I think the fact is that the teams, the games are tight.
02:52I mean, I think the teams are really close and closely fought as well.
02:55So, that can negate sometimes the home advantage as well.
02:58So, it's hard. I don't have a perfect answer for that, to be very honest.
03:01I'm just thinking out of the top of my head when you asked it as to why it's happening.
03:04Rahul, Mohamed Siraj, then your namesake and Chahel in the last three games here, all former RCV players, former RCV captain now as the coach of RR.
03:16Do you feel the pleasure to sort of extend that streak?
03:19Not really, man. I wish we had… Do we have an RCV player from last time?
03:23Play him in the 11th straight away.
03:25No, not at all, man. I mean, don't think about it like that, to be very honest.
03:31Just trying to play a good game of cricket, we know we have to play well to stay alive in this tournament now.
03:36We've, you know, lost a couple of close games coming into this, but, you know, we've played some good cricket as well.
03:42And it's just… It's one of those tournaments where a few balls going here or there and we might have been in a slightly different position.
03:48But that… You need to play well in those critical moments as well.
03:51It hasn't happened for us, so we know this is… Every game from here on in is very important.
03:55And, you know, we've got to try and play the best cricket we possibly can and hopefully get the result.
04:00Rahul, have you looked at the surfaces here in Chinnaswamy?
04:04Everyone's saying that it's not the typical Chinnaswamy pitch. Scores are 169, 163 and the 14-0 game 95.
04:12How much of that will influence the way you approach this game or do you think you're at that stage where you just have to go for it irrespective of the surface?
04:20Yeah, I mean, we just have to go for it irrespective. I mean, that's a given.
04:23But I think every surface will be different. I think the last one, I think just having a chat with the groundsman,
04:29it was under covers for a really long period of time, you know, so it was probably not a good one to judge it on.
04:35You know, the wicket I'm seeing here from at least what I can make of it looks a really good wicket.
04:40So, you know, I can't really say how those wickets looked in the earlier games.
04:45But the track that's been produced for this one looks actually to me a very good cricket wicket and I think it should be a pretty high-scoring game.
04:54Yeah, Rahul, actually RC vision is very good for me as far as batting is concerned, particularly like Birat Kohli.
05:03And even RR Olsen, this is an out of eight outings, lost six games. Very close games, of course.
05:10So, how do you see this tomorrow's match being, you know, Birat being a home advantage as much as a lot of players here who already played?
05:17Like I answered earlier, it's a very important game for us. Every game from here on in the position we find ourselves in, you know, we can't afford to make many mistakes.
05:24You know, we have this stage in the tournament just over halfway and we find ourselves at the bottom half of the table.
05:29Now, we've got to start climbing that table quickly and we've got to start winning games quickly.
05:33I mean, there's no options. There's no chances of slipping up anymore.
05:38I mean, RCB is probably in a position where, you know, I'm sure they also realise that the table is tight.
05:43But they have, I think the successes they've had means that they can afford to have the odds slip up.
05:49But I think we are in a position where, you know, honestly, we can't afford to slip up anymore.
05:53Rahul, in this season you've injured your leg but yet we see you at every match with like crutches and wheelchairs and so on.
06:05I think it is a result of you playing the league matches here before the tournament.
06:09Has it been a bit of a challenge mobility-wise and sort of being able to focus on the game when you're carrying this injury?
06:17Nah, it's not been a challenge. I mean, if I had to play, if I had to play the match, then it probably would have been a challenge.
06:24But no, I mean, of course, it's been, you know, I've had some support, needed some support and help at various times and, you know, had to do it.
06:31But no, I think it's been fine, you know. Luckily, as a coach, you're not really having to score any runs or take any catches or, you know, do that kind of thing.
06:41So you just had to use your brains and use your mouth a little bit and that seems to be in decent order.
06:47So no, no excuses. No worries there on that front, really.
06:51Other than it being a little bit of just a pain for me, really, and just getting over that.
06:55And hopefully it's getting better. So hopefully in the next three weeks I should be out of this boot.
06:59So should be good. Looking forward to that.
07:02Hi Rahul. What's the update on Sanju's injury? And just with regard to Riyan Pirag, has the dynamics changed with him as captain now?
07:10And Sanju not around?
07:12So Sanju, I think, as you know, we've sort of picked up a bit of a side, sort of side issue in the game against Delhi.
07:19And he couldn't play the last game. And this game as well, you know, he wasn't fit and our medical team sort of didn't rule him fit to play this game.
07:28So we took the decision on sort of medical advice to not risk him to travel, make two more flights and be here.
07:37And we kept the physio back so that we can treat him and try and get him back as quickly as we possibly can.
07:41But look, we're looking at it on a day-to-day basis. You know, I have no timeline given as to when exactly something like that will be fit.
07:51But we're trying our best. You know, obviously we know we've played here after this. We've got a game on 27th and we've got a few games quickly.
07:58And then we've got a gap. So we'll just have to see how it goes, honestly. He was not fit for this game and he didn't travel here.
08:04In terms of Riyan, I think, not really. I mean, Sanju is sort of like, you know, still the captain of the team.
08:11And Riyan as a vice-captain has stepped in. And he stepped in really well. You know, I think Riyan had captained in four of the games.
08:17Even in the first three games, in fact, Sanju wasn't able to field because of the finger injury.
08:22So Riyan had to actually do the captaincy on the field. And I think, you know, he's sort of done it in four games.
08:27And some of those games haven't been easy, right? Especially the high-scoring ones and like games in Sunrisers, Hyderabad and all of that.
08:33But I think he's done a good job. I mean, I think he's been really good and calm and, you know, just having a chat with him about some of his
08:40his sort of bowling changes and field placements. And I think they've been really good. And he's really, I think he's getting the pulse of the game really well.
08:47So for someone who's so young and just starting out in his captaincy, I think he's kind of, you know, adapting well to it.
08:55Of course, the team needs to play well for him.
08:57Follow him and.