Jaipur, March 12: Rajasthan Royals head coach Rahul Dravid will join the team’s preparatory camp in Jaipur on Wednesday, a week after suffering an injury on his left leg during a club match in Bengaluru. The IPL franchise shared a photo on social media on Wednesday, in which Dravid is seen wearing a cast on his left leg, and captioned the post, “Head Coach Rahul Dravid, who picked up an injury while playing Cricket in Bangalore, is recovering well and will join us today in Jaipur.”

The former Royals’ captain spent five seasons with the franchise from 2011 to 2015. He began his coaching career with the Royals back in 2014 when he transitioned from serving as the captain to being the team’s mentor. Former India head coach Dravid made a surprise return to the cricket field by playing alongside his younger son Anvay in a KSCA Group I, Division III league match in the Nassur Memorial Shield on February 22.

Rahul Dravid and his son Anvay represented the Vijaya Cricket Club (Malur) in a 50-over match against the Young Lions Club at the SLS Kreedangana cricket ground in Bengaluru.

The Indian cricket legend came into bat at No. 6 and made an eight-ball 10 in the match before being dismissed by spinner AR Ullas as the father-son duo forged a brief 17-run partnership for the fifth wicket.

Dravid played his second match of the tournament in the semifinal against the Jayanagar Cricketers. When the Vijaya Cricket Club were battling at 12/3 in the seventh over, Rahul joined his son Anvay at the crease. Two deliveries into his stay, the 52-year-old appeared in discomfort, his leg troubling him, but he continued to play and stitched a 66-ball 43-run partnership with Anvay for the fourth wicket.

The Indian legend battled injury and played until he had to be helped off the field. Still, his courage failed to lift the fortunes of the Vijaya Cricket Club, Malur, in the semifinal of the KSCA Group III league tournament.

Dravid, who was in Guwahati for the Rajasthan Royals’ recent pre-season camp before coming to Jaipur, will be seen in the dugout in the team’s IPL 2025 opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on March 23.

The Rajasthan Royals won the title in the inaugural year in 2008 and reached the final again in 2022. The Sanju Samson-led franchise finished third in the league stage in 2024 and lost out to eventual runners-up Sunrisers Hyderabad in Qualifier 2.

Dubai, March 12: After the recently concluded ICC Men’s Champions Trophy-winning campaign, India skipper Rohit Sharma moved up to third place in the ODI batting rankings chart, led by fellow opener Shubman Gill.

India lifted their third Champions Trophy title with a thrilling four-wicket victory over New Zealand in Dubai, star performers from both teams have been rewarded in the rankings update released on Wednesday.

Rohit, who smashed a match-winning 76 off 83 balls in the final, jumped two places to third. For his impressive performance in the final, Rohit was awarded the Player of the Match trophy. Meanwhile, Virat Kohli, who amassed 218 runs in the tournament, remains in the top five (fifth place) following his haul of 218 runs in the tournament.

New Zealand’s batters also made notable progress. Daryl Mitchell moves up one place to sixth, while young sensation Rachin Ravindra climbs an impressive 14 spots to 14th. Glenn Phillips also makes a leap, advancing six places to 24th.

New Zealand’s skipper Mitchell Santner was one of the standout performers with the ball, taking nine wickets in the tournament, including two in the final. His efforts see him jump six places to No.2 in the ODI bowling rankings, just behind Sri Lanka’s Maheesh Theekshana.

Fellow Kiwi Michael Bracewell also made a significant gain, moving 10 places up to 18th.

India’s spin duo Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja saw their rankings improve after their key contributions in India’s unbeaten campaign. Kuldeep, who picked up seven wickets, climb to No.3, while Jadeja moved up to 10th after claiming five wickets.

Afghanistan’s Azmatullah Omarzai remained the top-ranked ODI all-rounder, but the Champions Trophy saw a major shake-up just below him. Mitchell Santner rose to fourth, while Michael Bracewell (up to 7th) and Rachin (up to 8th) make jumps after their all-round displays.

New Delhi, March 12: Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting believes that Rohit Sharma not looking to retire from ODIs means he has a specific goal of playing the 2027 Men’s ODI World Cup.

Rohit clinched his second ICC title as India captain when the side beat New Zealand by four wickets to win 2025 ICC Champions Trophy in Dubai. There were rumours doing the rounds of Rohit retiring from ODIs just the way he called it quits from the T20I format after winning the World Cup in Barbados last year.

But the skipper, who top-scored with 76 to take the Player of the Final award, quashed all those talks after winning the Champions Trophy. “When you start getting to that point of your career, everyone’s waiting for you to retire.”

“And I don’t know why, when you can still play as well as he’s played (in the final), I think he was just trying to put those questions to bed once and for all and say, ‘no, I’m still playing well enough. I love playing in this team. I love leading this team.’ And I think, the fact that he said that, to me, it means that he must have that goal in mind of playing in the next (50-over) World Cup (in 2027),” said Ponting on The ICC Review show.

Rohit had led India to the 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup final on home soil, but suffered a heart-breaking six-wicket defeat at the hands of the Pat Cummins-led Australia in the title clash at the Narendra Modi Stadium.

Ponting believes that a sense of unfinished business may have to do with Rohit’s decision to stay at the helm of the Indian team until the 2027 ODI World Cup, to be hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

“I think probably the fact that they lost the last one and he was captain, that might be the thing that’s playing on the back of his mind. Just have one more crack at trying to win the T20 World Cup, the Champions Trophy, and the ODI World Cup. I mean, when you see him play like he played in the Champions Trophy final, you wouldn’t say that his time is up just yet,” he concluded.