What makes Abhishek Nayar a head coach of both WPL, IPL teams?

When Abhishek Nayar settles down in the dugout for his team UP Warriorz’ opening game in the upcoming edition of WPL on Saturday, it will be a ‘first’ in top flight franchise cricket in India. The former Mumbai and India allrounder is the first example of holding a head coach’s position simultaneously in a WPL and IPL team (Kolkata Knight Riders).

“I am quite excited about challenging myself as a coach. I have always believed in getting out of one’s comfort zone. When I work with players, I try to do that with them and I think this is one step in that direction,’’ Nayar said in an interview after the Warriorz turned the biggest spender in the WPL auction last November for the 2026 season. The Warriorz management had announced him as the head coach last July while in October, KKR confirmed him as the head coach in place of Chandrakant Pandit.

 The wheel has hence come a full circle for the soft-spoken 42-year-old, who was unceremoniously removed as an assistant coach of the Indian team after barely eight months in office from July 2024 to last March. While Gautam Gambhir’s recommendation had bagged the job for him, thanks to their KKR connection, there have been a number of theories about his hasty exit – the most credible one of him being the scapegoat in view of the Indian batting unit’s failure in the last Test series Down Under.

 There was a buzz that Nair failed to provide much of a value addition to the batters, with suddenly his lack of international experience – that of only three ODIs – being questioned. Interestingly, it did not stop him from acting as the main catalyst behind Rohit Sharma’s transformation in terms of physicality and the hunger to push his career till the 2027 World Cup only last year. The former India captain looked a different beast when returned to the international arena in the ODIs against Australia and has not looked back since.

 What is it that makes Nayar, who was more of the quintessential utility man in his cricketing days rather than a larger-than-life allrounder, such a sought-after guy in the demanding world of franchise cricket – for both men and women? An astute cricketing brain, Nayar brings in invaluable experience of playing IPL till 2014 himself (with Mumbai Indians, erstwhile Kings XI Punjab, Rajasthan Royals and now defunct Pune Warriors) and posseses a hand-on knowledge of virtually all domestic cricketers worth his salt.

 Here is what Shane Watson, appointed as Nair’s deputy in KKR for the upcoming season, says about his head coach: ‘’I think Abhishek Nayar knows just about every cricketer on the planet. His understanding of Indian domestic players, their stats, where they’re at, what they’ve been doing recently, the depth of his intel – it’s extordinary.

A multiple World Cup-winning Australian allrounder, Watson revealed that Nair, who was on the auction table in Abu Dhabi, always had ‘’two or three alternatives’’ lined up in case the KKR camp missed out on any domestic player.  Nair’s domain knowledge of the domestic players, coupled with his mentoring role in the Knights’ academy since it’s inception in 2018 during which Rinku Singh had been one of the biggest success stories under his watch, meant the Knights’ doors would always be open for Nair to fall back on.

 This is what prompted the Shah Rukh Khan co-owned franchise to appoint him as the Head Coach of a support staff full of much bigger names like Watson, mentor Dwayne Bravo, power coach Kieron Pollard and bowling coach Tim Southee.

However, his job at hand is that of steering a turnaround for UP Warriorz at the WPL as they have not been able to make a mark at the league so far.  They unveiled Australian veteran Meg Lanning as the captain for the season on Monday and shopped well at the auction – buying back Deepti Sharma, India’s Player of the Series in the 50-over World Cup triumph, as the most expensive signing of the day for Rs 3.2 crores.

 Welcoming Meg on board, Nayar said on Monday: ‘’When we were building this squad, getting the best captain was a priority. It was an obvious choice. This format is a captain’s format. Meg will take all the pressure, I will be chilling with coffee.’’