BCCI terminates India assistant coach Abhishek Nayar's contract

The BCCI has terminated Abhishek Nayar's contract, less than a year after appointing him as assistant coach of the India men's national team.

Nayar, who was appointed last July, is the first major casualty of the review carried out by the BCCI to assess India's miserable run in Test cricket late last year, beginning with the 3-0 whitewash at home against New Zealand followed by the 3-1 series defeat in Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Soon after India returned from Australia, the BCCI conducted an extensive review meeting in coordination with India head coach Gautam Gambhir. Also present at that initial review meeting, which was held in Mumbai, were India Test and ODI captain Rohit Sharma, the chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar, and BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia.

Nayar, a successful allrounder with Mumbai who played three ODIs for India, was handpicked by Gambhir for the job after he was appointed as head coach. While Gambhir was given a three-year contract - until the 2027 ODI World Cup - Nayar's tenure could not be ascertained.

Gambhir and Nayar worked together at Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL 2024 and were key to the franchise winning its third IPL title, the first after a decade. While Nayar has never coached in the domestic circuit, he has worked one-on-one with several international and uncapped Indian players, including Rohit, Dinesh Karthik, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer and Angkrish Raghuvanshi.

Recently, KL Rahul also credited Nayar for his white-ball success, saying, "Big shoutout to Abhishek Nayar. I've worked a lot with him ever since he's come into the Indian team."

Doubts over Nayar's future emerged in late January when the BCCI appointed former Saurashtra batter Sitanshu Kotak as the batting coach ahead of the white-ball home series against England. Both Kotak and Nayar, along with assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate and fielding coach T Dilip had also travelled to the Champions Trophy as part of Gambhir's support staff.

ESPNcricinfo has reached out to Nayar as well as Saikia for comments.

Adrian Le Roux, who worked with the India men's team as a trainer for a year in the early 2000s, is set to join in the same position. It is understood that Le Roux, who is currently with Punjab Kings in the IPL, has accepted the offer the BCCI made recently. Le Roux is set to replace Soham Desai, who has been the strength and conditioning coach for India since 2019.

After working as a consultant during India's tour of South Africa in 2001-02, Le Roux signed a one-year contract as trainer with India, which lasted until the 2003 World Cup. He then declined the one-year extension given by the BCCI, saying it was "a personal decision" to stay back home before he joined the South Africa men's team as a trainer. Le Roux paired successfully with Andrew Leipus, who was India's physiotherapist then, and the two made a significant difference to the fitness level of players.