Old? Bowled!

At 36, Ashish Nehra defies age and injuries to return as the spearhead of India’s struggling pace attack

- Neeru Bhatia

Devendra Sharma is a happy man these days. Ashish Nehra, his child-hood friend and one-time Delhi teammate, is back in Team India colours. “How many times have you seen cricketers making a comeback to Team India after a gap of fours years? Not often,” he says.

Sharma has been Nehra’s constant companion—much like the injuries that have dogged the left-arm pacer in his two-decade-long career. The duo works together at the Sonnet Club, Delhi’s numero uno cricket academy, under the guidance of Tarak Sinha, aka Ustadji, the super coach who has groomed stalwarts like Manoj Prabhakar, Atul Wassan, Raman Lamba and Shikhar Dhawan.

Nehra had been working hard to get back into the national team. At the Sonnet Club, he would sharpen his skills in the nets by bowling nonstop for an hour or more under Sharma’s watch. “He knew he would be called up for India. The period after the 2011 World Cup semifinal against Pakistan, when he was ignored because of injuries, was his toughest. But he always worked for the recall,” said Sharma. Nehra stuck to his training schedule even after he was recalled. In fact, he went to the airport to join Team India straight from the Sonnet Club.

Nehra last played for India at Mohali on March 9, 2011, against arch-rivals Pakistan. He donned the blue shirt again on January 26, 2016, when he was selected for the T20 series in Australia. The four years in wilderness did not affect his pace: he consistently clocks 135kmph, and his in-swingers and yorkers continue to beat batsmen. And, after a long time, India’s bowling looks calm and collected—both with the new ball and at the death. Newcomers Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya have been giving Nehra good support.