Ashish Nehra: The Man Who Knew How To Make Comebacks

In the last decade, a number of fast bowlers laid foundation for India’s future fast bowling generation. One of the successful bowler was Ashish Nehra who deserves praise for contributing to India’s success. Today is the birthday of this former Indian fast bowler. Ashish Nehra was born on 29 April 1979 in Delhi and played for India in all three formats.

A tall and strategic bowler whose wonderful career was greatly affected by constantly occurring injuries. But, every time after undergoing surgery, he made a strong comeback.

After 5 years of hiatus from 2011 to 2015, he returned to Indian cricket team the age of 36 and led Team India to the semi-finals on the strength of his bowling in the 2016 T20 World Cup. Earlier, in the 2011 and 2003 ODI World Cups also, Ashish bowled amazingly and played an important role in taking the team to the finals.

Ashish Nehra made his international debut in 1999 in red ball cricket. But due to injury and fitness, his Test career did not last very long and he could play only 17 Tests. Nehra played the last Test in 2004. Meanwhile, he made his ODI debut in 2001. Ashish made a mark in this format on the basis of his swing and variation in a short time and then in 2003 he got a chance in the ODI World Cup in South Africa. Ashish Nehra played a crucial role in leading India to the semi-finals.

He bagged 15 wickets in 9 matches. His best performance came against England when he bagged 6 wickets in 10 overs ans conceded only 23 runs. To this day, it has remained the best performance by any Indian bowler in the World Cup.

Prior to the match historical match, Ashish Nehra sustained an injury. He played with a swelling on his left leg. Ashish Nehra had to undergo surgery several times during his career. Because of this, he kept going in and out of the team but, what mattered was his exceptional and match winning comebacks.

He was also a part of the Indian team in the 2011 World Cup. Again, his presence in the team proved to be cruical as he was very economical in the semi-final against Pakistan. He took 2 wickets for 33 runs in 10 overs. However, in this match his finger got fractured and he could not play the final against Sri Lanka and the semi-final against Pakistan proved to be his last ODI.

Nehra took 44 wickets in 17 Tests, 157 in 120 ODIs and 34 wickets in 27 T20Is. After retiring from cricket, Nehra also tried his hand in coaching. He was the bowling coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad. But in IPL 2022, he is the head coach of Gujarat Titans who are currently at thr top of the points table.

Where the coaches of the rest of the team are seen entangled in laptops and tablets. Interestingly, Ashish Nehra is always making notes using a pen and paper.