Mumbai: Indian all-rounder Abhishek Nayar has decided to call it quits from first-class cricket. The 36-year-old made his first-class debut back in 2005 against Tamil Nadu. He also got a chance to play under the leadership of MS Dhoni, but couldn’t impress selectors with his performances in the limited chances.
Nayar, who is regarded highly for helping out a lot of cricketers — including Dinesh Karthik and Rohit Sharma — now plans to focus on coaching. “That’s something I have been doing for a while and I want to focus on coaching assignments now,” Nayar, who is now associated with the Kolkata Knight Riders’ academy, said.
A left-handed batman and a seam bowler, Nayar was dropped during the 2017-18 season by Mumbai. He then moved to Puducherry last season and played four first-class games, and the highlight of the campaign was a five-for against Sikkim.
The 36-year-old all-rounder said he has no regret and his content with the career he has had. “At the end of the day, I’ve no regrets in my career, not even the fact that I couldn’t play my 100th FC game for Mumbai. After all, how many players get to play 99 games for Mumbai? I’m lucky that I played 99. Not playing that one game doesn’t change the way I look at the 99 games I played for Mumbai. I’m extremely happy and content with my career, and Mumbai cricket will always have a special place close to my heart. I know what it takes to be a part of that dressing room.”
Nayar had a career to be proud of, in which he scored 5749 runs in 103 matches at an average of 45.62, with 13 centuries and 32 fifties under his belt, and was one of Mumbai’s biggest cricketing names despite playing only three ODIs for India. His involvement with Dinesh Karthik and how that helped the latter make a comeback to the national team was one of the most celebrated stories to have come out of the Indian cricketing circuit in the last one year.
