Rahul Dravid has ended his stint as head coach of Rajasthan Royals. The move opens up possibilities of new avenues for the former India captain in the IPL.

Kolkata Knight Riders are without a head coach after Chandrakant Pandit resigned last month and there is talk that the three-time champions are interested in having him in their ranks.

The Knights’ CEO Venky Mysore is currently in the West Indies for the Caribbean Premier League and a definite move to have Dravid on board could begin once he returns to Mumbai. However, there remains a lot of uncertainty over whether Dravid would be ready to take over a new role, sources told The Telegraph.

KKR would want a multi-year contract with Dravid, but the T20 World Cup-winning coach is understood to be keen on taking a break.

He had earlier given up the India coach’s job because he wanted to spend more time with his family. His accepting the Royals’ coaching assignment was mainly because of his excellent relationship with the owners, especially principal owner Manoj Badale.

The Royals had earlier wished to trade Sanju Samson with the Knights after their captain requested that he be released following differences with the management. However, the move seems to have hit a bottleneck.

KKR aren’t willing to trade any of their players as demanded by the Royals. As things stand now, the Royals could release Samson into the auction or keep him since he is contract bound to stay for another two years.

Dravid’s second stint at the Royals came to an end after just one season and the franchise said in a statement on Saturday that he refused the offer of a broader position within the set-up. The Royals had finished ninth in IPL 2025 after failing to pull off several close matches.

“Head coach Rahul Dravid will conclude his tenure with the franchise ahead of IPL 2026,” the statement said. “As part of the franchise structural review, Rahul had been offered a broader position at the franchise, but has chosen not to take this.”

Dravid’s contribution and commitment to the Royals have been immense, especially in nurturing youngsters. Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s excellent progression in the last edition is a case in point.

Dravid, 52, first joined the Royals as a player in 2011, and led them for two seasons in 2012 and 2013, before serving as team director and mentor in 2014 and 2015.

As head coach, Dravid had played a key role in formalising Royals’ mega auction strategy for the next three-year cycle in last December. They retained Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag and Shimron Hetmyer ahead of the season, but Jos Buttler’s release led to a lot of dissent within the group.

Parag’s elevation as captain at the insistence of a top official of the franchise also doesn’t seem to have gone down well with all concerned parties with some preferring to promote Jaiswal.

The Royals currently have Kumar Sangakkara as director of cricket besides Vikram Rathour and Shane Bond as batting and bowling coach, respectively.

It is learnt that the Royals have called a meeting of its support staff in London where a decision will be taken on who will run the show following Dravid’s departure.