Minutes after KKR name Abhishek Nayar as head coach, MI use SRK dialogue to dismiss Rohit Sharma-to-Kolkata rumours | Cricket News
In true Bollywood style, Mumbai Indians (MI) turned to a Shah Rukh Khan dialogue to silence the buzz around Rohit Sharma’s rumored move to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) — moments after KKR announced Abhishek Nayar as their new head coach.Mumbai Indians posted on social media, saying: “Sun will rise tomorrow again, but (K) night… mushkil hi nahi namumkin hai (It’s not just difficult, it’s impossible).”
The rumour mills were doing the rounds as Rohit and KKR’s newly appointed coach are good friends, and Abhishek Nayar has worked closely with the former India captain before the three-match ODI series in Australia.
“Three months of hard work, not eating his favourite food, training hard — maybe you will see a few more kilos down when we see him play next time,” Nayar said on JioHotstar, as Rohit slammed a century in the third ODI against Australia in Sydney.Having retired from Tests and T20Is, Rohit hadn’t had much game time behind him, especially after not playing a match post the IPL 2025 campaign for the Mumbai Indians. Ahead of the ODIs against Australia, Rohit also lost the ODI captaincy to Shubman Gill.
Rohit spent a lot of time working on his fitness and losing almost 10 kg through a demanding training regime, along with a strict nutrition routine. He also worked on refining his skillset at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru and under former India assistant coach Abhishek Nayar in his hometown, Mumbai.“Since the time I started playing, I never had four to five months to prepare for a series. So I wanted to utilise that. I wanted to do things my way, on my own terms, and that actually worked out pretty well for me — understanding what I need to do for the rest of my career.“It was important to utilise that time because, like I said, I never had such time in my hand. So I wanted to utilise that time and I prepared pretty well back home. Obviously, the conditions back home and here are not ideal. There’s a massive difference between the two countries, but I’ve come here so many times. So it was just about getting into that rhythm and understanding what I need to do here.
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“So, I give a lot of credit to how I prepped before coming here, giving a lot of time to myself first. That was very important because sometimes you’ve got to understand that there’s so much to do in life besides what you do professionally. But I got a lot of time on my hands, so I utilised that.“Like I said, I could do things on my own terms, in my own time, which actually really helped me. Very, very grateful, firstly, to have people standing beside you. I’m pretty grateful for that,” said Rohit, who took the Player of the Match award in the third ODI and also received the Player of the Series honour, in a video posted on bcci.tv on Sunday.
