Rohit Sharma hadn’t played any competitive cricket since early June and gained weight in the next couple of months.
Rohit Sharma’s Mumbai teammate, good friend, and former India batting coach, Abhishek Nayar, has spoken in depth about how he underwent a dramatic fitness transformation ahead of the India vs Australia ODI series.
Nayar has worked with players like KL Rahul, Varun Chakaravarthy, and Dinesh Karthik in the past. He’s helped them all become better versions of themselves. He’s worked with Rohit previously as well, but not like this.
Trained like a bodybuilder
Most of his work was technical before, but now, it was all physical. Nayar has shared how Rohit lost 10 kg by training like a bodybuilder during the first 6 weeks of his training.
“To sum up, three hours of training every day. We didn’t do a lot of cardio. The first five weeks were about a bodybuilder’s mindset, where he was trying to train to completely lean down. He trained like a bodybuilder – high repetitions.”
There was an emphasis on building strength and improving his endurance. This led to such intense training that the current India strength and conditioning coach, Adrian Le Roux, wasn’t exactly on the same page with Nayar’s methods.
“It would surprise a lot of people. Even Team India’s strength and conditioning coach, Adrian Le Roux, would abuse me! But he did 700-800 reps for every body part. It was almost an hour-and-a-half session every day. With light weights, we did a lot of repetitions, aiming for strength and endurance. We finished every session with around 15 to 20 minutes of CrossFit, which is more cardio and movement-based. This was six days a week, three hours a day, for three months. It was non-stop,” Nayar said on Star Sports.
Rohit Sharma’s diet changes
The biggest change was going to be controlling Rohit’s eating habits. He could train all he wanted, but he also had to eat healthily. This meant he had to skip eating those vadapavs that people mention so often. Rohit controlled his urge, and that’s why the training turned out to be successful.
“But the game doesn’t end there. After that, his eating habits had to be controlled. It was his commitment to go home and not indulge in the famous vadapav and everything else people talk about. That was his commitment to the sport. Those 3 hours are only as useful as what you do after that. Those 21 hours – the way he controlled himself, not to eat – that was the mindset,” he added.
Light as a feature
After a total of 8 weeks, Rohit started practicing, and the results were there to see instantly. Nayar reveals how the former India captain told him that he felt like he was flying instead of running after his weight loss.
“The first eight weeks were pure, hardcore training. Then we introduced skills. We were trying to see what changes had come about in the way he moved and how he felt after losing weight.”
“The first time we practised, he played a defensive shot. That day, the scenario was drop and run. When he ran and reached the non-striker’s end, he said, ‘Bhai, main toh ud raha hoon (Brother, I’m flying).’ That was his feedback, because after a long time, he was feeling really light,” Nayar concluded.
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