Former India assistant coach Abhishek Nayar recently shared that Rohit Sharma used his omission from the 2011 World Cup squad as motivation to completely overhaul his fitness.
After being excluded from India's 2011 ODI World Cup squad, a news channel ran a segment body-shaming Rohit by drawing a circle and an arrow around his stomach to question his fitness.
Instead of being demoralised, the Indian batter used the critique as motivation. Within six weeks, he transformed his physique and entered the IPL 2011 season sporting a four-pack.
Nayar claimed that before this incident, Sharma prioritised natural skill over fitness workouts, operating under the philosophy of "Arrey chodd yaar, main run banaoonga".
“We have been friends for many decades and we used to argue a lot because I trained heavily, while he relied more on skill. I would tell him, ‘Come on, let’s hit the gym,’ and he would say, ‘Arrey chodd yaar, main run banaoonga (Leave it, I will score runs).’ There was nothing wrong with that mindset. Back in those days, the whole fitness culture and the Virat Kohli phenomenon had not transformed Indian cricket yet. But the turning point for Rohit came when a news channel published his photo with a circle and an arrow drawn around his belly. That image stuck in his mind,” Nayar said in an episode of The Great Indian Cricket Show on Doordarshan.
Nayar noted that Rohit always had exceptional skill, and focusing on fitness helped him become a modern white-ball legend.
He added, “When India’s World Cup squad for the 2011 World Cup was announced and he was not selected, we were at his house. He expected to be picked. The IPL was scheduled to take place after about a month and a half, and he told me, ‘Nayar, whatever it takes in these six weeks, I need to enter the IPL with at least a four-pack.’ People may not believe it, but he entered that IPL with a four-pack. He had become that strong and worked that hard behind the scenes. Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures. For him, skill was never the issue. It was always about fitness and using that to elevate his skill set.”
Abhishek Nayar also narrated an anecdote about Rohit Sharma’s extraordinary talent with the bat.
“This was 2007, when T20 had just started in domestic cricket. He was playing in the Inter-State T20 Tournament for Mumbai against Gujarat. Dilip Vengsarkar, who was the chairman of selectors, had come to watch the game and was sitting in the first tier in Cricket Club of India. Rohit of course smashed a century in that game (101 not out off 45 balls to help Mumbai win by five wickets in April 2007). Rohit hit a six in that game which was one of his most impactful sixes. The ball had landed next to Vengsarkar. It was on the basis of that innings that Rohit was picked for tournaments like Deodhar Trophy.
“In his first Deodhar Trophy game vs North Zone at Udaipur, he had smashed an unbeaten 142. That was the proof that he was a big-stage player. Once he started smashing the ball in white ball cricket, it was really tough to stop him. For someone that young, he could really hit the ball for long distances,” Nayar recalled.
Rohit broke into the Indian team at a very young age of 19. For his Mumbai teammates who were still grinding in domestic cricket, Rohit became their direct window into the glamorous, elite world of the Indian national dressing room.
“He would play for India where he would share the dressing room with Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag. When he would come back, we would constantly ask him what the dressing room was like, what do these stars do, what watches and shoes do they wear,” Nayar remarked.
