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Abhishek Nayar has revealed how he helped Rohit Sharma prepare for the Australia tour, including via match simulations with bowlers similar to Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc.
Rohit Sharma specifically prepared against bowlers who resembled Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.
(PC: PTI, AFP)
Former India assistant coach Abhishek Nayar turned Rohit Sharma’s personal trainer in the last few weeks. The former Mumbai teammates and good friends were seen doing rigorous practice sessions in the lead-up to India’s white-ball tour of Australia, where Rohit is making his much-anticipated international comeback.
Now, Nayar has revealed some details of those sessions. He said the initial goal of the program was to make Rohit leaner — he had earlier disclosed that the former skipper was not too pleased seeing his trolling over his photos on social media — before moving on the ‘match fitness’.
“It’s been a very structured three months for Rohit. In the beginning, the obvious plan was to work on his fitness and make sure he could shed a few kilos. In the end, he shed more than just a few to get into proper shape, and then in the last five weeks, the entire focus has been around his match fitness,” Nayar said on Star Sports.
“As I said earlier, even though you’ve been playing international cricket for so long, you still want to be fully prepared when you return. So there were a lot of match simulations — in the initial days, he spent plenty of time in the nets, getting his rhythm back, regaining his batting fitness, and then it became all about match temperament. So, lots of match practice, lots of simulated match situations, trying to replicate the kind of conditions he will face,” he added.
The latest clips of the duo before the tour began were from Shivaji Park, the famous maidan of Mumbai, where cricketers train and play everyday. Rohit was seen facing tall bowlers on a bouncy track.
Nayar said they deliberately tried to recreate conditions of facing Australia’s quicks, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc.
“I know it’s different in Australia, but luckily in Mumbai, you get pitches with a lot of pace and bounce as well. So we tried to simulate that — facing tall fast bowlers, like a Hazlewood type, and left-arm pacers like Starc. We tried to make it as close as possible to what he’ll encounter there.”
“But like I said, you can practice as much as you want, you can prepare endlessly, but once you’re there — as he always tells me — that real experience always comes in handy in some way. So, he’ll make use of that experience, and we’re all really looking forward to seeing Rohit Sharma back and scoring runs for India,” Nayar added.
The ODIs kick off on Sunday November 19, at Perth’s Optus Stadium.
October 18, 2025, 08:06 IST
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