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WPL: Abhishek Nayar, learning on the coaching job
A batting mentor and IPL coach, the ex-allrounder will guide a women’s team for the first time with UP Warriorz
Mumbai: Abhishek Nayar looked relaxed as he sat on stage during a pre-Women’s Premier League (WPL) news conference. Next to him was UP Warriorz’s new captain Meg Lanning, the former Australia stalwart who led the national team to five World Cup wins – the 2022 ODI and four T20Is.
“I wanted someone who could lead this team and having Meg there makes things very easy for me,” Nayar, the Warriorz head coach, quipped. “I’m going to be chilling, having coffee.”
The light-hearted comment also betrayed the truth about the pre-season camps of the five teams in WPL 4.
“There is lesser time (for preparation),” Nayar told HT. “WPL is a month earlier than what it was last year (due to the men’s T20I World Cup starting on February 7 that India will co-host). The time constraint doesn’t let you work with them as much. So, if we win, I don’t get any credit except for building the team.”
It is into such a setting that Nayar gets in for his first women’s team coaching stint. He is otherwise a seasoned coach. The former Mumbai allrounder (First class: 103 matchs, 5,749 runs, 173 wickets). He was the batting coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders team when it won IPL in 2024. In between, he was briefly the India men’s team assistant coach. He has also worked on a personal capacity with Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik and others.
“Getting out of your comfort zone is the only way you are going to grow as a coach,” Nayar said. “Luckily, this opportunity (came up). This was a way to challenge myself in a different way, by understanding different cricket and see what I can take out of it to become a better coach.”
His first step was in the mini auction last month when he helped build the team. After that it was about understanding the differences between guiding the men and women. Much like Amol Muzumdar, who spoke about his “relearning” before guiding the India women’s team to World Cup victory.
“In my little experience, you need to be a lot more direct (with women players), and you need to communicate really well,” he said. “You need to be wary that the words you use can really impact them. So, when I’m being brutal with the men, it can get the best out of them. That will not necessarily work with the women.
“I’m still in the space where I am walking on a minefield and trying to figure out if this is the right way or not. But it’s still coaching and I think that is my biggest strength.”
What is not exactly working for him is the short time that was available for a pre-WPL camp.
The team got together in full swing towards the end of last week and will play the first match on January 10. Nayar thus is not looking to make many technical changes.
“I think the easiest thing to change in a short period is tactics,” Nayar said. “I try to be very tactical with them and give them information that I feel they can process. I have to be truthful, but also give them enough information that doesn’t confuse them, because you don’t want them to come and try to impress me. I want them to express themselves.”
In Lanning, the Warriorz have a serial winner. And in Nayar, a budding coach who has shown his worth in franchise cricket. Together they hope to guide a team that has struggled (Warriorz reached the playoffs only in 2022) to greater heights.
