Former Team India assistant coach Abhishek Nayar shared that captain Rohit Sharma had urged him to work on reshaping KL Rahul’s mindset as a batter when Nayar stepped into the coaching role. Nayar, who was part of head coach Gautam Gambhir’s support staff from mid-2024 to April 2025, played a key role in helping Rahul adopt a more aggressive approach at the crease.
Though Rahul has always possessed natural talent, his tendency to play cautiously often limited his impact, leading to underwhelming Test statistics and a lack of match-defining performances across formats. With Nayar’s guidance, however, Rahul has made significant progress in recent months, showing marked improvement in his approach.
Despite being shuffled across various batting positions, Rahul delivered several important innings during the first half of the 2024–25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia, ending as India’s third-highest run-getter with 276 runs on tough wickets. In a conversation with ESPN Cricinfo, Nayar recounted Rohit’s message to him upon joining the coaching setup.
“When I first picked up that role, I remember I had a conversation with Rohit, and he said that one of the things he was really keen on me doing was working with KL and bringing out a more aggressive outlook to how KL played the game, and bringing the best out of him because he believed strongly that KL would play a major role in the Champions Trophy, World Cup and everything going forward including the BGT [Border-Gavaskar Trophy] and the Tests in England.”
Nayar Impressed By KL Rahul’s 2025 Champions Trophy Form
Abhishek Nayar saw KL Rahul’s early six in the 2025 Champions Trophy final as proof of their hard work. Coming in at No.6 with a tricky chase ahead, Rahul began cautiously but broke free by smashing Mitchell Santner for a six off his eighth ball—showing a newfound intent under pressure.
“Watching the game as part of the support staff, I remember watching him and saying damn, this is really working. Because that start was very against his nature. It was not a shot that he would play when batting on [3].”
”That’s a shot he would play when he was batting 35 or 40. That is a small moment in my head when I said, damn, we are thinking right, he’s moving in the right direction,” said Nayar (via the aforementioned source).
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