How Nayar beat the odds and survived in cricket

Shardashram High School will be playing their important Harris Shield game. Coach Naresh Churi looks for an opening partner for their star batsman Soham Dalvi.

A young medium pacer Abhishek Nayar is asked if he will open the innings. His answer is not an immediate yes, though.

A teammate of Nayar tells him: “Agar team main rehna hai toh open karna padega (If you want to be in the playing XI you will have to open).” He thinks again only to say “theek hai (OK).”

Nayar is nervous. He has never opened the batting before. He is in awe of his opening partner, who is well-known in school cricket. But there is something inside him which tells him that he can do it.

And he does it. He somehow scores a 190-ball 82 which solves Shardashram’s opening batting query. “I don’t know how, but I had the belief and was determined. It was then I realised that I can bat a bit too,” Nayar says.

The Mumbai all-rounder doesn’t possess the kind of extraordinary talent like his former and current teammates Wasim Jaffer, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane,  Shreyas Iyer or a Dhawal Kulkarni.

But his game has been more about determination and the intent which has made him a vital cog in the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team for more than a decade.

Life has posed tough questions to Nayar every time he has stepped on to the field. He has punched back hard like a boxer.

The 2016 Ranji Trophy season, too, was full of doubts for the 33-year-old. He was coming from injury break after many months. He had fractured finger in his bowling arm last season during one of the games. And then there were question marks over his consistency.

“I didn’t know if I would be able to do it. I had not picked up a bat or ball for a long time. But the selectors and the team management had faith in me,” he says.

The determination and trust in himself paid off. Nayar played a huge role in helping Mumbai make it to the semifinals of the Ranji Trophy this season, performing impressively with both bat and ball.

He delivered all those performances under pressure with the recent being a nine-wicket match haul that saw Mumbai beat Hyderabad by 30 runs in a thrilling quarterfinal in Raipur.

Before that, against Bengal he along with Shubham Ranjane (both scored half centuries) drew the game after a major collapse.

Against Madhya Pradesh, too, Mumbai were on way to lose the first innings points. Chasing 445, Tottering on 368/7 at one stage, Siddhesh Lad and Nayar slammed unbeaten ton each to guide and stitched together a 200-run stand to help overcome the target.

In the Tamil Nadu game, if not for Nayar’s 45 not out, Mumbai, might have failed to chase the 97-run target. A match they eventually won by eight wickets.

Nayar has always played his cricket in a gutsy manner. He isn’t a naturally gifted player like many of his contemporaries. And has had to work hard his way through the many layers.

Even today, he is touted as an example at the Mumbai maidans. His former teammates, who could not make it to the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team, still can’t believe how he made it to the next level.

“Nayar had that extra something in him. He did not look like a batsman nor did he have the pace of a fast bowler, but he could still manage to outdo more talented players,” says one of his teammates.

Nayar agrees. “I was neither a batsman nor a bowler. I started batting only in school. It was only after joining Shardashram, from Bombay Scottish, that I started thinking about technique. I had never played a cover drive.”

Nayar has been honest to himself throughout his career. “I have always known that I did not have the talent and was someone who had to work really hard to prove myself over and over again. But I knew what my game is all about,” he says.

“I was always determined and focussed and did not like to waste any chance. On top of that, I did not like to be rolled over by someone else or someone who takes defeat on his chin. Nor did I have the fear that others are better than me. My aim was – if not the best, at least, I wanted to be the second best in the team,” he adds.

“In school too, if Soham would score a double hundred, I would try for a hundred, if not a double,” he says.

For someone like Nayar it is the game that has kept him going. “It is only for the love of cricket that I have been able to survive. It’s the challenges that I face everyday. For me, now, the aim is to guide the youngsters in the dressing room. I’m happy when they are successful,” he says.

There are days when he sits down and wonders if life has been fair to him. He believes he could have got more opportunities at the highest level as he did very well in a couple of seasons in Ranji Trophy.

Nayar’s CV shows only three ODIs against West Indies. It was when India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni had said that he doesn’t know if Nayar was a bowler who could bat or a batsman who could bowl.

“I don’t think life has been fair,” says Nayar. “I wish it was a little more fair and I would have got more chances.”

 But he still doesn’t have regrets and is happy in life. “I am a positive person who thinks there is something bigger and better in store for me if not this. I am grateful to God because I could make it to this level. There are some who were 10 times better than me and yet, could not make it so far,” he adds.

With Ranji semifinal coming up against Tamil Nadu in Rajkot, Nayar says he is focussing all his energy on it. He gets ready to practice with his teammates so that he may play a part in Mumbai’s yet another win, as well, as survive one more day in the sport.