{"id":10144,"date":"2025-11-17T13:20:56","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T07:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/?p=10144"},"modified":"2025-11-17T13:20:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T07:50:57","slug":"kumar-sangakkara-recalled-as-rajasthan-royals-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/si\/kumar-sangakkara-recalled-as-rajasthan-royals-head-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Kumar Sangakkara recalled as Rajasthan Royals head coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rajasthan Royals on Monday declared Sri Lanka legend Kumar Sangakkara as their head coach for the 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL) season, following the exit of Rahul Dravid from the role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dravid had left the franchise in August this year and Sangakkara, who has been the franchise\u2019s Director of Cricket since 2021, will be returning as the head coach having served in the same role from 2021-2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDirector of Cricket Kumar Sangakkara will also take charge as Head Coach for IPL 2026,\u201d Rajasthan Royals posted on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was a sudden end for former India captain Dravid\u2019s tenure after returning to the franchise for the 2025 season with a multi-year contract. The T20 World Cup-winning former national coach exited after a \u201cstructural review\u201d of the team\u2019s poor performance earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The franchise suffered a terrible run, finishing ninth in the 10-team event with just four wins from 14 games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sangakkara\u2019s return as head coach comes days after Rajasthan Royals completed the trade of their wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson, who will join Chennai Super Kings. In return, Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran have been linked in by the Royals\u2019 camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the meantime, RR also released a total of seven players, including three overseas, ahead of the mini auction to be held on December 16 in Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Among the players released by the Royals are Akash Madhwal, Ashok Sharma, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kumar Kartikeya Singh, Kunal Rathore, Maheesh Theekshana and Wanindu Hasaranga.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rajasthan Royals on Monday declared Sri Lanka legend Kumar Sangakkara as their head coach for the 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL) season, following the exit of Rahul Dravid from the role. Dravid had left the franchise in August this year and Sangakkara, who has been the franchise\u2019s Director of Cricket since 2021, will be returning&#8230;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,60],"tags":[2151,790,977,978,73,134,72],"class_list":["post-10144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket","category-international-cricket","tag-ipl-2026","tag-kumar-sangakkara","tag-rahul-dravid","tag-rajasthan-royals","tag-slsports","tag-sports-news","tag-sri-lanka-cricket"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Kumar Sangakkara recalled as Rajasthan Royals head coach - SL Sports<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/si\/kumar-sangakkara-recalled-as-rajasthan-royals-head-coach\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"si_LK\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kumar Sangakkara recalled as Rajasthan Royals head coach - SL Sports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rajasthan Royals on Monday declared Sri Lanka legend Kumar Sangakkara as their head coach for the 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL) season, following the exit of Rahul Dravid from the role. Dravid had left the franchise in August this year and Sangakkara, who has been the franchise\u2019s Director of Cricket since 2021, will be returning...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/si\/kumar-sangakkara-recalled-as-rajasthan-royals-head-coach\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SL Sports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lknewsroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-17T07:50:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-17T07:50:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/kmr-2025-11-17.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Slsports Viraj\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SlSports5\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SlSports5\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Slsports Viraj\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/kumar-sangakkara-recalled-as-rajasthan-royals-head-coach\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/kumar-sangakkara-recalled-as-rajasthan-royals-head-coach\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Slsports Viraj\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/#\/schema\/person\/6e3ead9806ed4f2b4ddfc9faa69328a5\"},\"headline\":\"Kumar Sangakkara recalled as Rajasthan Royals head coach\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-17T07:50:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-17T07:50:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/kumar-sangakkara-recalled-as-rajasthan-royals-head-coach\/\"},\"wordCount\":247,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/kumar-sangakkara-recalled-as-rajasthan-royals-head-coach\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/kmr-2025-11-17.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"IPL 2026\",\"Kumar Sangakkara\",\"Rahul Dravid\",\"Rajasthan Royals\",\"slsports\",\"sports news\",\"sri lanka cricket\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Cricket\",\"International Cricket\"],\"inLanguage\":\"si\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/kumar-sangakkara-recalled-as-rajasthan-royals-head-coach\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/kumar-sangakkara-recalled-as-rajasthan-royals-head-coach\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/kumar-sangakkara-recalled-as-rajasthan-royals-head-coach\/\",\"name\":\"Kumar Sangakkara recalled as Rajasthan Royals head coach - 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