Rajasthan Royals are one of the most respected and vaunted franchises in the history of the Indian Premier League – but they've not had the success their committed supporters crave.
The Royals have won the IPL just once – the very first iteration of the competition back in 2008, inspired by the late, great Shane Warne as captain, when he took an unfancied team all the way to the title.
After being beaten in the final by Gujarat Titans in 2022, Rajasthan will be looking to go all the way this time around, with an all-star squad that includes Joe Root, Jos Buttler, Trent Boult, Ravichandran Ashwin and plenty of other top talents.
But what about the man tasked with holding it all together? The Sporting News profiles the Royals' coach right here...
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Who is the Rajasthan Royals coach?
Kumar Sangakkara takes on the role of director of cricket for Rajasthan, which doubles up as the head coach position too.
The legendary former Sri Lanka batter is one of the game's top run-makers in all formats and has a huge amount of experience to pass on as a coach. He's been in charge of coaching matters since the departure of Andrew McDonald. McDonald is now, of course, the head coach of the Australian international side.
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What is Kumar Sangakkara's coaching record?
Sangakkara combines his coaching duties with stints as a commentator and pundit on cricket around the world.
He's previously held the role of President of the MCC – the first non-British person to ever hold the position – and he's been on Sri Lanka's international selection committee since 2016.
In terms of pure coaching positions, Sangakkara is not quite as experienced, with the Rajasthan role the only time he's led a T20 franchise. The Royals came seventh out of eight teams in his first season in 2021, before finishing second last year.
We miss you, Warnie. 💗 pic.twitter.com/is7RUyL6Eq
— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) March 4, 2023
Who are Rajasthan Royals' other coaches?
Sangakkara's fellow countryman Lasith Malinga is the fast bowling coach for the franchise, another hugely respected figure in white-ball cricket. He's backed up by former Somerset seamer Steffan Jones who is the high performance bowling coach.
In the batting department, Sangakkara takes the lead but is backed up by batting coach Amol Muzumdar and assistant coach Trevor Penney who is known as a top fielding guru as well. Dishant Yagnik is also on board as a fielding coach.
All the coaches will feed into Sangakkara and captain Sanju Samson as Rajasthan set about winning the IPL for the first time in 15 years and just the second time in their history. They'd love to win it as a tribute to the legendary Warne.
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