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Rahul Dravid weighs in on diminishing significance of home advantage
In the ongoing season of Indian Premier League, several teams have voiced concerns over the diminishing significance of home ground advantage. However, Rajasthan Royals’ head coach, Rahul Dravid, has offered a nuanced perspective on the matter. Dravid has posited that the number of players coming into new franchises has led to a lack of familiarity with home venues.
“I think it depends from ground to ground really. I'm not really sure what specific franchises might have wanted from their curators, so to speak, but home advantage, generally, the teams are new as well right after a big auction,” Dravid said during the press conference.
Dravid cited the examples of Nitish Rana and Phil Salt, who both are playing for different teams now. Rana, who last year played for KKR, is now with RR. While Phil Salt, who also played for KKR last year, is now playing for RCB.
“It's the first year after a big auction, so for a lot of the players as well, even though they may be your home players, they are playing for those teams or those grounds for the first time. For example, in the case of, say, at RCB, someone like Phil Salt was at KKR and he's coming here for the first time. I'm just using him as an example. We have players in our team, for example, someone like Nitish Rana, was not with us and he's playing for us this year, so for him, Jaipur is actually kind of a new ground," he said.
“So, I think that when you just have a big auction and there's a change of squad, the home advantage may not be that significant. But maybe as you go later on into the cycle, maybe you might start seeing their significance a little bit more because then your players get to practice and play a little bit more,” added Dravid.
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