Indian fast bowler Ashish Nehra has said “Good Bye” to international cricket.
After first appearing in the Indian colours back in 1999, Nehra went on play 17 Tests, 120 ODIs, and 26 T20Is for India claiming 44, 157, and 34 wickets respectively.
During his career, Nehra played with several Indian cricketers including the likes of Mohammad Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, MS Dhoni, Ajay Jadeja, Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble, Virat Kohli and the list goes on.
Favourite cricketers
“It takes one to know one,” they say. As it turns out, Nehra has revealed two cricketers, who are his favourites because of their “sharp cricketing brains”.
“For me, Ajay Jadeja and Mahendra Singh Dhoni are the two shrewdest cricketing brains I have ever interacted with,” Nehra told reporters at his academy in Noida on Monday.
Indian cricket team’s good and bad coaches
“I didn’t play much under Greg Chappell save two series in 2005 (in Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe). Mujhe pahle series se hi maloom thaa yeh biryani, khichdi bannewali hain Greg ke under (I knew biryani would turn into Khichdi under Greg).
“That’s where Gary (Kirsten) was such a superb coach. He discussed strategies with MS (Dhoni) but on field, he never interfered with MS’ style of functioning. But I still believe Chappell could have been a terrific coach for juniors,” Nehra observed.
He also feels India’s current head coach Ravi Shastri is the ideal foil for aggressive skipper Virat Kohli.
“Look Virat’s career and captaincy are on auto-pilot mode right now. He knows what he is doing and leads by example. He doesn’t need gyaan (sermons) but support which Ravi gives him in abundance,” he said.
“You know the best part about Ravi. If a player is going through a rough patch, he is the man. Even if the player is not able to middle a single ball in the nets, Ravi would make him believe that he is as good as Brian Lara! Now that might sound ludicrous to an outsider but those who understand cricket know that this is man-management,” Nehra added.
