In true Bollywood style, Mumbai Indians (MI) turned to a Shah Rukh Khan dialogue to silence the buzz around Rohit Sharma’s rumored move to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) — moments after KKR announced Abhishek Nayar as their new head coach.
Mumbai Indians posted on social media, saying: “Sun will rise tomorrow again, but (K) night… mushkil hi nahi namumkin hai (It’s not just difficult, it’s impossible).”
The rumor mills were doing the rounds as Rohit and KKR’s newly appointed coach are good friends, and Abhishek Nayar has worked closely with the former India captain before the three-match ODI series in Australia.
Abhishek Nayar later commented on Rohit’s dedication: “Three months of hard work, not eating his favourite food, training hard — maybe you will see a few more kilos down when we see him play next time,” Nayar said on JioHotstar, following Rohit’s century in the third ODI against Australia in Sydney.
Having retired from Tests and T20Is, Rohit hadn’t had much game time, especially after not playing a match post the IPL 2025 campaign for the Mumbai Indians. Ahead of the ODIs against Australia, Rohit also lost the ODI captaincy to Shubman Gill.
Rohit spent a significant amount of time working on his fitness, losing almost 10 kg through a demanding training regime and a strict nutrition routine. He also focused on refining his skillset at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru and under former India assistant coach Abhishek Nayar in his hometown, Mumbai.
Reflecting on his extensive preparation, Rohit stated: “Since the time I started playing, I never had four to five months to prepare for a series. So I wanted to utilize that. I wanted to do things my way, on my own terms, and that actually worked out pretty well for me — understanding what I need to do for the rest of my career.
“It was important to utilize that time because, like I said, I never had such time in my hand. So I wanted to utilize that time and I prepared pretty well back home. Obviously, the conditions back home and here are not ideal. There’s a massive difference between the two countries, but I’ve come here so many times. So it was just about getting into that rhythm and understanding what I need to do here.”
He further added, “So, I give a lot of credit to how I prepped before coming here, giving a lot of time to myself first. That was very important because sometimes you’ve got to understand that there’s so much to do in life besides what you do professionally. But I got a lot of time on my hands, so I utilized that.”
“Like I said, I could do things on my own terms, in my own time, which actually really helped me. Very, very grateful, firstly, to have people standing beside you. I’m pretty grateful for that,” concluded Rohit, who received both the Player of the Match and Player of the Series honors in the third ODI, as shared in a video posted on bcci.tv on Sunday.