The Rajasthan Royals (RR) are set to face the five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Thursday, May 1. Ahead of the encounter, RR head coach Rahul Dravid stated that the team is focused on winning the matches ahead rather than thinking about a spot in the play-offs.
RR are currently placed eighth on the IPL 2025 points table with just three wins, and the Men in Pink have had a challenging season so far. The former Indian cricketer emphasized that the team remains committed to developing young talent, and not approaching the tournament solely with an eye on the future. The Indian veteran pointed out that the management continues to back its players by believing in their potential for longer-term success.
“It’s a tight tournament. Teams at the bottom can beat teams at the top. The margins are small. We’re aware that with six points we’re low on the table, but we’re taking it one game at a time. The focus is on winning the next match—not worrying about the table. Even though we’ve kept one eye on the long-term by retaining young Indian players, we didn’t enter the season thinking only about the future. We believe we could win this year. The results haven’t always gone our way, but we’re not using our long-term thinking as an excuse. We’ve been competitive, just small moments have cost us. The players we backed are part of our vision for the future, but also good enough to win now,” said Rahul Dravid to Star Sports.
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Great opportunity for the youngsters: Dravid
The Wall of Cricket acknowledged that the young players have remained calm regardless of the results and have continued to train properly. The head coach added that the match against MI provides a great opportunity for the youngsters to showcase their skills against the high-quality talent that MI brings to the IPL.
“What I’ve been proud of is how calm this young group has remained, win or lose. We’ve trained and prepared well throughout, and even after a good performance, like Vaibhav’s last game, we haven’t made too much of a fuss internally. Tomorrow’s game is another opportunity—a big one—against a strong Mumbai Indians side. It’s exciting for our youngsters to test themselves against that level of talent. And hopefully, they’ll be able to put up a good show,” the 52-year-old said.
