Former Indian batting coach Abhishek Nayar recently revealed that Rohit Sharma had given him the responsibility of bringing out the best version of Rahul's aggressive outlook yesterday. According to him, Rohit was someone who had full faith in Rahul's performance that he would play a big role for India in the 2023-25 cycle.
In July 2024, Nayar made his place in Gautam Gambhir's coaching staff as an assistant coach for the Kolkata Knight Riders. Although success was seen in white-ball cricket during Gambhir's tenure, the BCCI let go of Nair after India's 3-1 loss to Australia in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. His eight-month tenure working with most of the batsmen left a lot to be desired in terms of correcting the mistakes of many players.
But Rahul's name was not in that list; the right-handed batsman scored runs in all formats in all conditions. During the IPL 2025, Rahul named Nayar and said that the Mumbaikar worked on his game for hours and helped him enjoy it again.
In a recently concluded interview, Nayar said,
"When I first chose that role, I remember I had a conversation with Rohit, and he said that one of the things he wanted was to work with KL and bring a more aggressive approach to KL's game and get the best out of him, because he firmly believed that KL would play a major role in the Champions Trophy, the World Cup, and everything going forward, including the BGT [Border-Gavaskar Trophy] and the Tests in England."
Further, Nayar said that he and Rahul had made a month-long plan for the Australia tour, and the coach won Rahul's trust by talking to him for hours before making technical and mental changes. He called these methods successful when Rahul batted in the first Test in Perth in Rohit's absence and scored 26 and 77—both were crucial in India's victory.
He said,
"The coach must be lucky. How lucky that in his first match in Australia, he scored runs in the second innings and also got a start in the first match. This gave him some confidence. Sometimes it happens that the glue sticks. This was the moment when the glue stuck. He really enjoyed that inning. He told me, Listen, I feel like I am just watching and playing. Now, for me, playing the game is like music."
Even though Rahul did not score a century on that tour, he did secure his place in the team again.
Nayar, in his statement, said,
"I remember we met someone, and he jokingly said, 'Coach, you have to teach me how to score a century. And we were laughing jokingly. I thought, man, sometimes centuries are made only by luck."
If we talk about Rahul's scores in the first test of the England tour yesterday, he played an important knock of 42 runs in the first innings, and in the second innings, he scored a wonderful century and made 137 runs, but it all came in a losing cause.