Ashish Nehra set for his last outing with India
Ashish Nehra prepares for his last international outing in Indian colours as the men in blue face New Zealand in first of the three-match-T20I series. The 38-year-old veteran pacer was last part of a T20I match in Feb 2017, against England. As we hope to see Nehra play one last time, let's relive the highlights of his long and fascinating career.
Ashish Nehra's career in numbers
The 18-year-long international career of Ashish Nehra has been plagued by several injuries. He had to undergo 12 surgeries to be exact, which limited his game time. Nehra has been a part of just 17 Test matches during which he picked up 44 wickets, 120 ODI matches from which he had 157 wickets, and 26 T20Is where he took 34 wickets.
Best ODI bowling numbers
Nehra's best ODI bowling figures came against England in 2003 World Cup where he picked up 6 wickets for 23.
Debut and best years
Ashish Nehra made his Team India debut in 1999 in Asian Test Championship against Sri Lanka under the captaincy of Mohammed Azharuddin. The left-arm fast bowler had best time of his career between 2001-2005 during which he was part of the memorable 2003 World Cup feat against England. His injuries kept him away from cricket for a long while after 2005.
The comeback
Nehra was recalled to the Indian team for a 2009 ODI series against West Indies and continued to make regular appearance ever since. Between 2009 and 2011, he was part of 48 ODIs where he picked up 65 wickets at an average of 32.64. Ashish Nehra was last part of the India's ODI Playing XI in the 2011 World Cup.
Tail end career
The last phase of Nehra's career involved a lot of T20 which includes IPL and some internationals. He was also part of India's T20 World Cup campaign in 2016. On 12 Oct 2017, he announced retirement from all forms of international cricket.
