Emotional Ashish Nehra says it's difficult to bid adieu after spending nearly two decades in international cricket
Since the first T20 between India and New Zealand turned out to be a one-sided encounter with the hosts coming up on top to register their first ever win against the Kiwis in the shortest format, the only thing for the scribes to look forward to was which player from the two teams will attend the post match media interaction.
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India players dance with Ashish Nehra last night. Pic /PTI
For New Zealand, their skipper Kane Williamson turned up to summarise where they went wrong, which according him was in every department. From Team India it was Ashish Nehra who took centre-stage for nearly half-an hour as he entertained the media in a rare candid interaction that is hardly seen these days, especially, in Indian cricket.
On the field yesterday, the left-arm pacer couldn't add any wickets to the tally of his 235 international scalps across formats as he had two catches dropped off his bowling in his final game but off the he certainly added some more admirers.
'Emotional moment'
Describing that it was 'tough to bid goodbye' to the game he has played for nearly 20-25 years Nehra said it was an "emotional moment when Virat (Kohli) asked me to bowl the last over".
In his typical style leaning a little sideways, occasionally winking he would go on to add "as a cricketer you shouldn't say this but the game was almost over after the 15th-16th over." Nehra also recalled the first time he bowled in a first class game for Delhi from the same end -- Ashish Nehra End -- for the day.
When asked to pick some of his better performances on the international circuit Nehra said that those aren't performances, those are memories, "like my spell in Durban (6-23 v England in 2003) or the last over in Karachi ODI (v Pakistan in 2004) or my spell at Lord's and apart from these I have bowled the last over in many games."
Never lost hope
The left arm seamer, who made a comeback to international cricket around two years ago after being sidelined for nearly five years said that even during that period he was preparing himself to play for India. According to him, he never asked anyone in the team management for the reason he was never picked to play during that period but kept working on his game hoping to make a comeback. "Many a times I was practicing at my club bowling at a single wicket because this is what I love doing and hard work never goes waste," said Nehra.
Nehra hasn't decided anything about the future but added that "it will be something in cricket may be commentary or coaching because I don't know anything other than cricket."
On being asked about an old photograph of him and Kohli that has gone viral on the social media he remarked, "I'm not on social media so don't know and that photo has gone viral not because of me but because of what Virat has achieved." He might not be any social media platforms but till late night #Nehraji was trending.
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