Ashish Nehra rocked Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) with an outstanding spell of four for 10 to help Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to a 29-run victory in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015 encounter. Nehra also became the joint highest wicket-taker and Purple Cap holder with his effort. Shiamak Unwalla feels that there is still a lot Nehra has to offer India.
Ashish Nehra and Ishant Sharma have a lot in common. Both are tall Delhi pacers with rather conspicuous teeth who are frequently the butt of social ridicule. And both men have answered their detractors in comprehensive fashion with some outstanding performances.
Ever since the series in New Zealand in 2014, Ishant has consistently been India’s best Test bowler. His seven-wicket haul against England at Lord’s affirmed his upswing in fortunes. While he did not quite have the figures to show for it, he was comfortably India’s best bowler even in Australia.
Nehra, meanwhile, has quietly gone about his business behind the scenes. He was picked for CSK in IPL 2014, and was impressive in the limited opportunities he got, taking eight wickets in the four games he played at 17.75. However, his performance in the Champions League T20 (CLT20) 2015 was even better. He took 10 wickets in five games at 15.30, was incisive both at the start and at the death.
He has continued his comeback trail so far in IPL 2015 as well. In only five games he has snared 10 wickets at a miserly 12.10 runs per wicket and an outstanding economy rate of 6.05. Nehra took three wickets each against Delhi Daredevils (DD) and Mumbai Indians (MI) before his four-wicket haul against RCB. What has stood out, however, is the manner in which he has bowled.
Nehra has brought all his experience in to play. He remains considerably quick, touching and sometimes crossing the 140-kmph barrier while also swinging the ball. The line and length changes depending on the batsman and the situation of the match, and he is clearly the main weapon in Dhoni’s somewhat limited arsenal.
One wonders whether Nehra has a chance of making it back to the national side, at least in the limited-overs formats. At nearly 36 he is no spring chicken, especially while fielding, but he could play the role of mentor to the promising younger pacers in the side, not unlike how Zaheer Khan guided the likes of Ishant. With Dhoni’s backing, Nehra might yet get to turn his arm over in national colours.
As Virender Sehwag succulently put it in a tweet, “Wow Nehraji ne aaj phir kamaal kar diya… Old is gold.”
(Shiamak Unwalla is a proud Whovian and all-round geek who also dabbles in cricket writing as a reporter with CricketCountry. His Twitter handle is @ShiamakUnwalla)
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