Sangakkara Is Back! Rajasthan Royals Bring Back Their Most Successful Coach for IPL 2026

After trading Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, and Donovan Ferreira, the Rajasthan Royals confirmed that Kumar Sangakkara will return as the Head Coach for IPL 2026. This decision comes after a disappointing IPL 2025 season, where RR finished at 9th position under Rahul Dravid.

Kumar Sangakkara earlier coached the Rajasthan Royals from 2021 to 2024. In this period, Rajasthan played quite better cricket and even went to the finals in 2022. RR owner Manoj Badal said that Sangakkara’s return brings “continuity, stability, leadership, and deep understanding of Royals’ culture.”

Changes in the RR’s Coaching Staff:

Along with Kumar Sangakkara’s return, the Rajasthan Royals (RR) have also changed lots of people in the management for IPL 2026:

Vikram Rathor - Lead Assistant Coach

Shane Bond - Fast Bowling Coach

Trevor Penney - Assistant Coach

Sid Lahiri - Performance Coach

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Sangakkara Replaces Rahul Dravid:

After a decent IPL 2025 season, the Rajasthan Royals have decided to have a fresh start by replacing head coach Rahul Dravid with Sangakkara. Under Dravid, Rajasthan didn’t perform well and failed to qualify for the Playoffs.

Therefore, Management decided to bring back Sangakkara, who has proven IPL success and already coached RR in the past. Rajasthan Royals played exceptional cricket in the Indian Premier League under Kumar Sangakkara; that’s why he is back in the role to lift a trophy in IPL 2026.

Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran in RR:

Apart from coaching changes, the Rajasthan Royals also made the biggest move by trading Sanju Samson to the Chennai Super Kings in exchange for Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran. With this, they also traded Nitish Rana to the Delhi Capitals and got Donovan Ferreira.

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