MUMBAI: “It was some time in 2003,” Abhishek Nayar jogs his memory as TOI quizzes the former India and Mumbai allrounder and current Kolkata Knight Riders assistant coach about his first interaction with his “close, close” friend Rohit Sharma.
“We (Mumbai’s senior team) had gone to Hyderabad to play in the Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup. I fell sick there. I had a fever and was sleeping in my room. A certain Rohit Sharma, who was supposed to be my roommate, arrived after playing for Mumbai in an U-19 event. Realizing that I would be disturbed, he would go out of the room to talk on his phone. I found that very considerate. He was shy and would hardly talk. Slowly, we developed a friendship, a close bond which has remained strong,” Nayar says.
