By: Tarish Bhatt
Almost four years ago and that is January 9, 2011 – India’s premier fast bowler for shorter versions of the game, Ashish Nehra, played his last T20 match against South Africa.
India had won that match by 21 runs in Durban and the most experienced left-arm seamer from Delhi had taken two wickets and given away 22 runs in his quota of four overs.
Following that T20 game, India played the 50-over 2011 World Cup at home and Nehra was subsequently lost in oblivion after his team won the tournament at home.
Since then, Nehra has been sort of regular for the Delhi Ranji team, till he found his mojo back in the T20 format. Over last three years or so, the lanky pacer has been the most consistent fast bowler in the IPL.
Towards the fag end of 2014, there was a talk of picking the experienced Nehra for the Australian tri-series just before the 50-over 2015 World Cup began Down Under.
But somehow, his candidature in the team wasn’t considered till the selectors were forced to fall back on in again just before the World T20 at home this March.
Nehra, after all, is going to Australia for the T20 series and he is ready as ever to repose faith in the selector. It is also emerging that the pacer had a premonition about his selection for the Australian T20 series a while back.
Sources close to the cricketers revealed it to Drcricket7 that Nehra was in the know about his imminent selection.
“So, he has been working extremely hard on his fitness regime. Now he is again ready like before,” a source said. In fact, Drcricket7 was the first website to report on how Nehra could be back in the thick of things for the shortest version of the game.
If he can comeback with a bang, it will be one of the most exciting comeback into international cricket by an Indian cricketer at a mature age of 37!
