Profile
Few bowlers can be as ordinary and unplayable in equal measure as Ashish Nehra. A left-arm seamer with a side-on action, Delhite Nehra is gifted with pace and swing. His earliest taste of international cricket came in 1999 against Sri Lanka in a one-off Test appearance that resulted in a draw. He returned to the fold two years hence during India's tour of Zimbabwe, playing all of the 2 Tests and 5 ODIs. While notching an economy rate of 3 in the ODIs, a poor display in the finals undid all his earlier work. In Tests though, Nehra failed to achieve notable breakthroughs as a frontline seamer.
He remained in the fold until 2005, being a part of India's 2003 World Cup final run and part of India's respectable showing in Australia at the Border-Gavaskar Trophy the same year. Yet, under the hood, it became clear that Nehra's inclusion was only a stop-gap arrangement until Irfan Pathan and Zaheer Khan became accomplished and by 2005, that left-arm pairing became consistent enough to replace Nehra.
For four years, there was no talk of Nehra before he earned a surprise call-up in 2009 to tour the West Indies. Still it seemed his inconsistencies hadn't been ironed out, but as a strike bowler his knack for taking wickets saw an upswing. Regular 3-fors and 4-fors, along with injuries to the young breed kept Nehra's slot, until 2010. It remains to be seen if he still is a used to ease out another transition - that of Sreesanth, Balaji, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar - or if he remains put for the long run.
Fast Facts
- Nehra's 6/23 in the 2003 World Cup against England is India's best bowling figures in ODIs by a seamer.
- Nehra's 37 ODIs without a catch is the second longest catch-less streak behind Australian Tim May (42).
- His total of 3 Test pairs is tied third in the all time list.
- Among bowlers who have played over 100 ODIs, his economy rate of 5.14 is the second highest among frontline Indian bowlers, behind Irfan Pathan's 5.25.
- Nehra's combination of 5 four-fors and 2 five-fors in ODIs is the 5th best for an Indian bowler
- With 144 ODI wickets, Nehra is India's 11th most successful bowler in the shorter format.
Statistics
| Matches | Innings | Runs | NO | Avg. | SR | 100's | 50's | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test | 17 | 25 | 77 | 11 | 5.5 | 30.07 | 0 | 0 |
| ODI | 113 | 41 | 132 | 20 | 6.28 | 59.72 | 0 | 0 |
| T20 | 7 | 3 | 22 | 0 | 7.33 | 137.5 | 0 | 0 |
| IPL | 31 | 8 | 27 | 6 | 13.5 | 79.41 | 0 | 0 |
| CLT20 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Career
Span:- Test:
- 1999-2004
- ODI:
- 2001-2010
- T20:
- 2009-2010
- IPL:
- 2008-2010
- CLT20:
- 2009-2009
- Test
- Debut:
- India Vs Sri Lanka at Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo - Feb 24, 1999
- Last played:
- India Vs Pakistan at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi - Apr 13, 2004
- ODI
- Debut:
- India Vs Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club, Harare (Salisbury) - Jun 24, 2001
- Last played:
- India Vs New Zealand at MA Chidambaram Stadium (Chepauk), Chennai (Madras) - Dec 10, 2010
- T20
- Debut:
- India Vs Sri Lanka at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur - Dec 09, 2009
- Last played:
- India Vs Sri Lanka at Beausejour Cricket Ground, St Lucia - May 11, 2010
- IPL
- Debut:
- Mumbai Indians Vs Royal Challengers Bangalore at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai (Bombay) - Apr 20, 2008
- Last played:
- Delhi Daredevils Vs Deccan Chargers at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi - Apr 18, 2010
- CLT20
- Debut:
- Delhi Daredevils Vs Victorian Bushrangers at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi - Oct 09, 2009
- Last played:
- Delhi Daredevils Vs Royal Challengers Bangalore at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore - Karnataka - Oct 17, 2009