Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday officially announced Abhishek Nayar as their new head coach, as was reported by The Indian Express on October 26. Interestingly, though, the three-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions’ social media post announcing the development came about 15 minutes after Mumbai Indians cheekily indicated that their veteran former captain Rohit Sharma is not leaving the team.
MI attached a picture of Rohit Sharma in their post and said: “Sun will rise tomorrow again ye confirm hai but at (K)night… mushkil hi nahi namumkin hai (It’s not just difficult, it’s impossible),” with the second half of the tweet written in Hindi and a play on the famous dialogue from the Don film series. KKR then tweeted: “A new dawn is upon us,” with a picture in which they welcomed Nayar as their new head coach.
The two announcements came amid widespread speculation on social media that Rohit, who has led MI to a record five-IPL title wins, could join Nayar at KKR. The pair are known to be close, with Nayar helping Rohit undergo his recent physical transformation ahead of his comeback in international cricket in India’s ODI series against Australia. The 38-year-old Rohit, who had been stripped of ODI captaincy just before the tour, ended up being named player of the series after a stellar show with the bat, which included a masterful 121 not out off 125 balls in a winning effort in the third ODI.
Nayar is known for his scouting eye and ability to draw out elite performances from various players. Many players in the past have been helped by Nayar to transform their cricket, including KL Rahul. Even though he has tasted success when dealing with players individually, his stint with the Indian team was seen as a failure. The batting group’s continued failures in Test cricket at home and abroad had put the spotlight on Nayar’s role. After its review meeting earlier, the BCCI had terminated the contract of its support staff which had back then been handpicked by the head coach Gautam Gambhir.
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