According to reports, the BCCI has decided to part ways with India’s assistant coach Abhishek Nayar, with an official confirmation yet to be revealed.
The Indian Board has a no-nonsense approach after India’s poor outing in Australia and decided to terminate assistant coach Abhishek Nayar’s contract after just eight months.
Although the BCCI has yet to make its official statement, reports claim that Nayar has already been informed of the decision. Brought in as part of India’s new coaching set-up after Rahul Dravid, Vikram Rathour and Paras Mhambrey’s tenure expired by the end of the 2024 T20 World Cup.
The report added that BCCI’s appointment of Sitanshu Kotak as India’s new batting coach was a way to push Nayar out eventually.
It’s not known yet whether the board’s strict actions stem from their belief that Nayar had a role to play in India’s dressing room leaks after Border Gavaskar Trophy, but the 41-year old’s presence has, in fact, dubbed ‘counter-productive’.
“Just after the tour of Australia, there was a review meeting conducted by the BCCI. The top officials of the board, including secretary Devajit Saikia and vice-president Rajeev Shukla, were present along with important members associated with the Indian team, and the national selectors,” said a BCCI official.
“On the sidelines of the meeting, a powerful member of the support staff expressed his apprehensions about Nayar’s presence and said how him being in the dressing room is proving to be counter-productive.”
“While the BCCI didn’t act immediately, but they brought in Kotak, the former Saurashtra run-accumulator. It was a way of side-lining Nayar during the Champions Trophy.”
India head coach Gautam Gambhir and Abhishek Nayar had worked together at Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL 2024 and were key to the franchise winning its third IPL title, the first after a decade.
While Abhishek Naya has never coached in domestic circuit, he has worked one-on-one with several international and uncapped Indian players, including Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer and Angkrish Raghuvanshi.
Recently, KL Rahul also credited Nayar for his white-ball success, saying, “Big shoutout to Abhishek Nayar. I’ve worked a lot with him ever since he’s come into the Indian team.”
BCCI has appointed former Saurashtra batter Sitanshu Kotak as the batting coach ahead of the white-ball home series against England. Both Kotak and Nayar, along with assistant coach T Dilip had also travelled to the Champions Trophy as part of Gambhir’s support staff.
