3 reasons why Abhishek Nayar is the perfect choice for India men's batting coach
If the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) management had the option to retain one of Gautam Gambhir and Abhishek Nayar, they would have probably chosen to part ways with the former. Despite the experience, inspiration and a new-found connection with the fans that mentor Gambhir brought with him, the foundation of KKR's success in IPL 2024 was laid down by assistant coach Nayar, an admired figure inside the club and an underrated one outside.
The former Mumbai and India batter was always destined for bigger things. He is now deservedly set to join the national men's team as an assistant coach for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka before officially taking over as the batting coach.
Below, we explain three reasons why he's the perfect choice for the job, in the short term and long term.
#3 Nayar can bridge the gap between Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir
After India won the 2024 T20 World Cup, Rohit Sharma's admiration and love for Rahul Dravid and his processes became crystal clear. The duo shared a bond much bigger and purer than that of a coach and captain which drove the team with a clear vision and perhaps also helped in creating a friendly, fun, culture in the dressing room.
Gambhir is likely to be a different character than Dravid. It's not to say that he won't be fun and empathetic when the team needs it, but his ways of operating and how he'd convey them would be probably much different than Dravid's.
Here, Nayar can be the bridge and that makes him perfect in the short term.
He has worked extensively with Rohit in the past, on his fitness and mindset and even in his most difficult moments after the snub from the 2011 World Cup squad. And the fact that Gambhir chose him to be in the backroom staff shows the trust he has in him.
India can't afford that the transition between Dravid and Gambhir to be anything but smooth because there are ICC tournaments to take care of every year. Nayar can bring a bit of calm to the leadership group which could go a long way in shaping the team's future.
#2 India needs more modern coaches
The Dravid coaching department was full of traditionally aware and experienced coaches with the skills to strengthen the foundations of Indian cricket. And you can say that they did that job well.
Now, the move towards Gambhir signals BCCI's ambition to go the next step. Nayar is a modern coach like him and would bring fresh ideas, knowledge of the current scope of the sport and a vision of where it's going and how the team should adjust to it, including through playing fearlessly.
For example, a big part of Nayar's coaching involves increasing the range of shots for a batter; he has taught that to the likes of Dinesh Karthik and Rinku Singh. If he gets to work with the entire batting set-up with time on his hands, we could see a revolution in Indian cricket, especially in the white-ball formats, where the players fulfil their potential.
His predecessor Vikram Rathore has been hailed for improving the tailenders' batting techniques. Nayar can carry on that progress while also bringing players like Harshit Rana into the set-up who can improve batting depth while not compromising on bowling quality.
A bit like KKR of 2024 Nayar might be able to transform the Indian batting line-up into a well-oiled machine with role clarity and security.
#1 Nayar has a history of bringing exceptional cricketers into the set-up
You know about Rohit and Karthik now. Here's an excerpt from an interview Sportskeeda did with KKR youngster Angkrish Raghuvanshi earlier in the year:
"I felt like Abhishek sir is my family so I didn't stay away from family for too long. He treated me like I was his family and every day used to motivate me to work harder."
Nayar took Angkrish under his wings when the Delhi boy was just 11 years old. Angkrish moved to Mumbai soon after and now lives with Nayar at his home.
There are not too many coaches in India who can boast about helping a cricketer from his early teens and making him one of the best youngsters, good enough to be a part of an IPL-winning playing XI.
There's a reason why KKR trusted Nayar to run their academy in Mumbai. Here, he worked with many young and experienced players' technical and mental aspects, sometimes all throughout the off-season, away from the limelight.
Varun Chakravarthy, Nitish Rana and Ramandeep Singh, among others, have expressed their gratitude towards him for this. While many in the KKR feel that the franchise's strong Indian core is a result of his hard work.
"Nayar, especially, has done amazing backroom work as KKR's assistant coach in preparing the bench strength and working on domestic India players throughout the year. KKR have produced 11 India players in the last seven years, and much of the credit for identifying and preparing these players goes to Nayar, who has been with the team since 2018," a source close to the developments at the Indian team was recently quoted as saying by TOI.
As India prepares to move on from Rohit, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja in T20Is and soon from other seniors across other formats too, the importance of a coach who can recognize young talent, build them from the ground up and finally integrate them into the set-up is exactly the need of the hour.
KKR would miss him but they'd know that the country is richer with him as the batting coach.