Despite having an ICC T20I World Cup-winning head coach, Rahul Dravid, on the bench, Rajasthan Royals (RR) are out of the IPL 2025 play-off race, which has baffled cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar. 

The inaugural champion had a golden opportunity to defeat Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) last night, as they had to score only 18 in the remaining two overs, with five wickets in hand. Royals' batters showed very little intent to win the match, lost a couple of wickets, and got only 1 run in the 20th over, bowled by Josh Hazelwood. 

The RCB pacer, with all his experiences, bowled exactly what his team was looking for from him. Royal Challengers Bengaluru, at the home ground, batting first, scored 205 in the 20-over limit. RR, in return, was restricted to 194 for 9 wickets. From 189 runs to 191 runs, Rajasthan Royals lost their 4 wickets. Batters like Dhruv Jurel and Shubham Dubey were unable to cool their nerves, which resulted in wickets. 

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When a person like Rahul Dravid, who is known for his cool, collective, and methodical personality, was on the bench, why did his Royals' students perform in that manner under pressure? Sunil Gavaskar raised the question. 

Gavaskar have some valid points 

"With Rajasthan Royals, I’m actually talking about the earlier matches where I wasn’t at the ground; I just saw them. So, you're not always able to get the feeling of what’s really happening. But here, I was on the ground, and you could actually see the kind of cricket that was being played. And with someone like Rahul Dravid as the coach, it was quite baffling; it was unthinking cricket," Gavaskar said.

"Where is the thought process there? You can’t expect inexperienced players to always get it right, but still... It’s just a different kind of cricket. Dravid was always so precise in his thinking, and I would’ve thought that kind of approach would’ve seeped into some of the Rajasthan batters."