• Source:JND
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India vs Australia 1st ODI: Rohit Sharma had a disappointing outing with the bat on his return to international cricket during the first ODI match between India and Australia as he was dismissed for just 8 runs at the Optus Stadium in Perth on Sunday.

While Rohit had to spend the majority of the time in the dressing room after his early dismissal and the frustration with rain interruptions around, he was seen enjoying eating popcorn with Shubman Gill. This was Rohit's first appearance for India since leading India to the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 title. He is playing as a specialist batter in the ongoing three-match series, having been replaced as the ODI skipper by Gill.

In an interesting turn of events, former India assistant coach Abhishek Sharma was quick to react after watching his long-time friend Rohit eating popcorn and ended up losing his cool. Rohit, who trained hard with Nayar ahead of his India comeback after more than seven months, lost 11 kgs.

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"Arey bhai usse popcorn mat de (Don’t let him eat popcorn)," Nayar said during his commentary stint on Star Sports.

During India's innings, Nayar also opened up about Rohit’s fitness transformation. "I think there’s been a lot of talk about the weight loss," Nayar told JioHotstar. "The initial parts were obviously about getting fitter, getting leaner. I spoke about this before. There was a spitting image of him walking out of the airport after his holiday in the UK. So that was something he wanted to change. He wanted to come back."

"The outlook was obviously the 2027 World Cup — to be fitter, stronger, lighter, and more agile. And the skill has always been there. The fitness has only amplified the skill. It’s helped him move faster. His agility is the best it’s ever been."

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"He’s excited. He’s keen. He knows there’s a bit of pressure and talk around whether he’ll reach the 2027 World Cup. The first statement was his weight. Hopefully, the second statement will be the runs he scores with the bat."

Nayar went on to share more insights on Rohit's training, revealing that the veteran batter trained for three hours every day and didn’t do a lot of cardio.

“To sum up, three hours of training every day. We didn’t do a lot of cardio. The first five weeks were about a bodybuilder’s mindset, where he was trying to train to completely lean down. He trained like a bodybuilder – high repetitions," Nayar said.

“It would surprise a lot of people. Even Team India’s strength and conditioning coach, Adrian Le Roux, would abuse me! But he did 700-800 reps for every body part. It was almost an hour-and-a-half session every day. Imagine if you were doing chest and triceps, you ended up doing 800 reps. With light weights, we did a lot of repetitions, aiming for strength and endurance. Along with that, we finished every session with around 15 to 20 minutes of CrossFit, which is more cardio and movement-based. This was six days a week, three hours a day, for three months. It was non-stop," he added.

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