'At 17, Rohit Sharma had unbelievable hitting prowess'

MUMBAI: “It was some time in 2003,” Abhishek Nayar jogs his memory as TOI quizzes the former India and Mumbai allrounder and current Kolkata Knight Riders assistant coach about his first interaction with his “close, close” friend Rohit Sharma.

“We (Mumbai’s senior team) had gone to Hyderabad to play in the Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup. I fell sick there. I had a fever and was sleeping in my room. A certain Rohit Sharma, who was supposed to be my roommate, arrived after playing for Mumbai in an U-19 event. Realizing that I would be disturbed, he would go out of the room to talk on his phone. I found that very considerate. He was shy and would hardly talk. Slowly, we developed a friendship, a close bond which has remained strong,” Nayar says.

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Soon, Nayar would have a glimpse of a then teenaged Rohit’s precious talent.

“We batted together in one match. I saw someone who was hitting some unbelievable sixes in red-ball cricket, not a familiar sight those days. He played a few 30-run odd cameos, but his highly impressive sixes caught my eye.

“Since then, I knew Rohit was special. I’ve always enjoyed his batting. While playing for the Mumbai U-19 team, he would hit huge sixes, and that too consistently, which would land up on the first and second tier at the Brabourne and Wankhede Stadiums. You don’t see that kind of hitting prowess from somebody who is 17,” Nayar says.

And then came the moment that catapulted Rohit, then just 19, into the Indian team, almost out of nowhere.

It was April 4, 2007. Chasing 142 against Gujarat at the Brabourne Stadium in a league match of the inaugural edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy, Mumbai had slipped to 32/3 in the sixth over before Rohit smashed a match-winning 101 not out off just 45 balls, including 13 fours and five sixes. It was the first hundred in T20 cricket by an Indian.

Mumbai’s next highest score in that five-wicket win was Wilkin Mota’s 14.

“One of his sixes broke the glass at CCI when he smashed Siddharth Trivedi for a six on the first floor,” Nayar says.

Amongst those watching the match was former India skipper Dilip Vengsarkar, then the national chief selector.

“It was the only game in that tournament in which Rohit got runs but he was still picked soon for India, so a lot of credit goes to Dilip sir, who was a blind believer in Rohit’s talent,” Nayar reminisces.

A few months down the line, Rohit was part of India’s team, which triumphed in the inaugural World T20 in South Africa. A few years later came the big shocker. Not in the best of form and fitness, Rohit was dropped from the 2011 World Cup team, which went on to clinch the title.

“It was the biggest rejection of his life. While India won that World Cup, Rohit felt that he had lost the most personally, However, I would call that as the moment of ‘transformation’. Thereafter began his renaissance (with Nayar helping him out with his fitness). It was a transition that saw his attitude and mindset towards the game, and his fitness, undergo a complete 180-degree transformation,” says Nayar.