Rohit Sharma’s skills with the bat have always been unquestionable, but detractors have sometimes raked up his fitness as an issue. Now Sharma’s good friend Abhishek Nayar has revealed an incident from 2011 where Sharma used the snub from Indian selectors for the 2011 Cricket World Cup side to get four-pack abs.

“We have been friends for many decades and we used to argue a lot because I trained heavily, while he relied more on skill. I would tell him, ‘Come on, let’s hit the gym,’ and he would say, ‘Arrey chod yaar, main run banaoonga (Leave it, I will score runs).’ There was nothing wrong with that mindset. Back in those days, the whole fitness culture and the Virat Kohli phenomenon had not transformed Indian cricket yet. But the turning point for Rohit came when a news channel published his photo with a circle and an arrow drawn around his belly. That image stuck in his mind,” Nayar said in an episode of The Great Indian Cricket Show on Doordarshan, a clip of which was released by the broadcaster recently as part of their Nostalgia Factory series.

Rohit Sharma celebrates his century during 3rd ODI against England, at Lord’s in London on Sunday.

Nayar added, “When India’s World Cup squad for the 2011 World Cup was announced and he was not selected, we were at his house. He expected to be picked. The IPL was scheduled to take place after about a month and a half, and he told me, ‘Nayar, whatever it takes in these six weeks, I need to enter the IPL with at least a four-pack.’ People may not believe it, but he entered that IPL with a four-pack. He had become that strong and worked that hard behind the scenes. Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures. For him, skill was never the issue. It was always about fitness and using that to elevate his skill set.”

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Nayar also gave an anecdote about Sharma’s dazzling talent with the bat.

“This was 2007, when T20 had just started in domestic cricket. He was playing in the Inter-State T20 Tournament for Mumbai against Gujarat. Dilip Vengsarkar, who was the chairman of selectors, had come to watch the game and was sitting in the first tier in Cricket Club of India. Rohit of course smashed a century in that game (101 not out off 45 balls to help Mumbai win by five wickets in April 2007). Rohit hit a six in that game which was one of his most impactful sixes. The ball had landed next to Vengsarkar. It was on the basis of that innings that Rohit was picked for tournaments like Deodhar Trophy.

“In his first Deodhar Trophy game vs North Zone at Udaipur, he had smashed an unbeaten 142. That was the proof that he was a big-stage player. Once he started smashing the ball in white ball cricket, it was really tough to stop him. For someone that young, he could really hit the ball for long distances.

Nayar said that many Mumbai cricketers would “live their lives through Sharma”.

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“He would play for India where he would share the dressing room with Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag. When he would come back, we would constantly ask him what the dressing room was like, what do these stars do, what watches and shoes do they wear,” Nayar added.