Mumbai All-rounder Abhishek Nayar Bids Farewell To First-Class Cricket

A hard hitting left-handed batsman and a handy military medium pace bowler, Nayar played 103 first-class games for Mumbai and represented India in three ODIs under M.S. Dhoni in 2009,

Mumbai all-rounder Abhishek Nayar, who donned the Indian jersey in three ODIs, brought down the curtains to his first-class career. "It's been an absolute honour and I'm grateful for all the support I've received through my playing career. I gave it my everything and like they say 'no regrets no comebacks'.

"Its time to move on...thank you, everyone, for the love and support," wrote Nayar in a post on Instagram on Wednesday along with a picture of an article published in a national daily confirming his retirement.

A hard hitting left-handed batsman and a handy military medium pace bowler, Nayar represented India in three ODIs under M.S. Dhoni in 2009, but couldn't pick up a wicket or score a run. The 36-year-old did yeoman service to Mumbai and Puducherry cricket, playing 103 first-class matches in which he amassed 5,749 at a healthy average of 45.62, with 13 centuries and 32 fifties. He also picked up 173 wickets at an average of 31.47, with six five-wicket hauls. Besides his stellar first class career, Nayar played 99 List-A games in which he amassed 2145 runs and picked 79 wickets. Nayar is close to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper Dinesh Karthik and helped him during his lean patch some time back. The left-handed batsman, who worked with KKR as consultant during the last season, has been the lead coach and mentor of the KKR Academy in Bengaluru. From this season though, Nayar has been named as the assistant coach of the franchise, with former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum being the head coach and David Hussey and Kyle Mills serving as chief mentor and bowling coach respectively.