What was Abhishek Nayar’s record as an Indian cricketer?
Former all-rounder Abhishek Nayar is close to being appointed as assistant coach of the Indian cricket team. Newly appointed head coach Gautam Gambhir has recommended him for the role to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), and the decision is soon to be finalized ahead of the tour of Sri Lanka.
Nayar was the assistant coach at the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), a role he has held for several seasons now. He played a huge hand in the resurrection of Dinesh Karthik as well as the development of Varun Chakravarthy and Venkatesh Iyer.
As far as his playing career is concerned, Nayar represented India in three ODIs in 2009, all of which came against the West Indies. A left-handed batter and a handy medium pacer, he only got to play one innings during the 2009 Champions Trophy group stage clash in Wanderers, where he faced seven balls and remained unbeaten on 0.
With the ball, he bowled a total of three overs, conceding 17 runs without a wicket to his name.
Although he never played for India after 2009, his first-class career continued till 2018. Representing Mumbai throughout his domestic career, he played 103 first-class matches, scoring 5,749 runs at an average of 45.62 and picked up 173 wickets too.
He represented four IPL franchises in his career, beginning with the Mumbai Indians for the first set of seasons before featuring forKings XI Punjab (now renamed to (Punjab Kings), the now-defunct Pune Warriors India, and the Rajasthan Royals.
The all-rounder played a total of 60 matches in the IPL, scoring 672 runs at a strike rate of 116,46 while taking nine wickets as well.
Abhishek Nayar is likely to begin his stint with Team India's tour of Sri Lanka
According to a recent report by Cricbuzz, Nayar will be joined by Ryan ten Doeschate as a co-assistant coach in the setup ahead of Team India's upcoming white-ball tour of Sri Lanka.
He is currently involved with the Mumbai domestic team, providing a coaching clinic during the domestic off-season, before he is officially announced as Team India's assistant coach.