Coaching an elite player is about getting conversation right first up

Hindustan Times

13 hours ago

Mumbai: As cricket branched out to more formats and became equally competitive across genders, the scope for coaching grew manifold. Gone are the times when coaching the national or state team were the only avenues available to those with the aptitude and credentials. Abhishek Nayar. (BCCI)
You could be coaching an IPL franchise in the summer, having brainstormed with an elite athlete discussing ODI tactics, then put in place a customised camp to help another India player prepare for an overseas Test assignment, work with a local team in a T20 state offshoot, shift focus to women's franchise cricket for their league and get back to do academy work for the mainstream men's franchise. This is pretty much Abhishek Nayar's coaching resume for 2025. His stint with the Indian cricket team was brief, but his problem-solving skills remain in high demand.
Nayar, whose tenure as India assistant coach ended with the Australia tour early this year, was immediately welcomed back by Kolkata Knight Riders as assistant coach. The former India cricketer who has worked closely with Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Dinesh Karthik and others in an individual capacity, is also the head coach of UP Warriorz in the Women's Premier League.
'Good luck,' he says about his success in guiding elite batters. 'My style of coaching is very simple. It's understanding what a player needs. The inception to everything is understanding what the problem is, right? That's what everyone finds really hard. Why is a player not doing well? Why is a player not being able to score runs? What is stopping him?
'I sort of pride myself on figuring that out really early, whether it's a skill problem or a mental problem. To find out what's the first barrier I need to cross. Then it becomes slightly easier to win the trust of the player. Coaching an elite athlete is about getting the first 40 seconds of the conversation right. If you manage that, you hit the right nerve. You can then try and impact their career.'
Some players saw mentoring skills in Nayar even when he was a player. Rohit had reached out to Nayar to shake off the disappointment of the 2011 ODI World Cup snub. How the two worked together through innovative ways on Rohit's fitness is well documented.
'What I've realised with top cricketers, a lot of the time it's identifying skill and the mind. In skill, it's identifying whether the problem is technical or tactical,' he says.
'When I worked with Rohit more recently, it was about tactically finding a way to get him to score in T20s. Get him to use certain tactics early in his batting to overcome certain bowlers. The plans and strategies you make change from time to time. I can't tell you specifics, but it's almost like saying this guy is going to come and bowl to you and before he does this, this is what you're going to do. This is your first option. And you practice that. It gives a person clarity and belief that, 'I've practiced this and this is how I'm going to put him under pressure'. You take that punt.'
One can connect the dots. Rohit had to improve on slow build-ups from previous IPL seasons, overcome his trouble against left-arm pacers, and better the sub-par returns in IPL.
'Every cricketer starts realising that bowlers are also understanding how you take them down. So, you have to come out with different ways,' he says. 'They can be very, very small things. It can be the guard you're changing, which ball you're stepping out to. Those are tactical changes that players normally relate to, buy into, rather than technical changes.'
Does working with women cricketers require re-strategising? 'I think the coaching philosophy and the language that you speak to men and women is slightly different,' he says. 'Cricket per se is not new to me because I've done a lot of commentary on women's cricket and that helps. I'm used to understanding fields.'
Nayar had worked under the previous UP Warriorz head coach Jon Lewis for the franchise and he did some camps with the England women's team. The former India and Mumbai cricketer says he's had conversations with some NCA coaches, 'not on how to coach, but on how to speak to them or what works when you speak to women. And what can get them going and what they don't like.'
As players search for ways to stay relevant across formats, the same team coaches take time out to provide customised sessions for the next challenge. 'It's here that I too get to enhance my skills,' says Nayar. 'Every player expects a new challenge, a new drill. So, as hard as it is for the player, it's as hard for me as well. Because I have to constantly keep thinking out of the box as to how I can make him feel that he is more prepared than he was the last time. So, it's a hard one… a constant evolution on both ends.'