A few days after he was removed as assistant coach of the Indian team, Abhishek Nayar is all set to join Kolkata Knight Riders as one of the support staff. Nayar had earlier worked for KKR and was their main man behind the scenes, taking care of grooming players in the academy.
As this newspaper has previously documented, Nayar’s role has come under scrutiny due to the batting group’s ongoing domestic and international Test cricket failures. It is known that some team management voices questioned Nayar’s involvement during the review meeting held shortly after the Australia tour, and players were also asked for their opinions. Additionally, this is the first time the BCCI has intervened to end a support staff member’s contract who was personally chosen by the head coach.
The Indian board had removed the support staff members Abhishek Nayar and fielding coach T Dilip, and the conditioning coach Soham Desai. The Indian team will also have a new masseur going ahead on the tour of England. The decisions were taken by the BCCI bosses in their review of the debacle in the Border-Gavaskar series.
It is understood that Nayar’s tenure was up for renewal in June, but with the team set to tour England for a five-match Test series, the board had decided to ring the changes now before the squad is picked.
Nayar has been viewed as the liaison between the coach and the players ever since the new coaching staff took over for the Sri Lankan tour. In addition to having a positive relationship with skipper Rohit Sharma, Nayar has previously been credited by players like Dinesh Karthik and Venkatesh Iyer for their success in the white-ball format. Varun Chakaravarthy had given Nayar credit for his return to the Indian team even in the current lineup, and more recently, KL Rahul had given the 41-year-old former Mumbai and India all-rounder praise for his improved play.
However, soon after India lost the Test series at home against New Zealand, batting great Sunil Gavaskar had questioned Nayar’s role. “For batting…what is the role of Abhishek Nayar in the team? Is he a batting coach or an assistant coach?” he had told Sports Tak.
