Left-arm fast, over and out

Chandigarh,  It’s the end of the road for Ashish Nehra. The careers of fast bowlers very often end in a whimper, not with a bang.  That’s because by retirement age, mostly past 35, their pace is gone and their bodies are ravaged. But T20 cricket gives even old fast bowlers a chance to bow away with dignity —since the batsmen are reckless, easy wickets can be had in the shortest format of the sport. Even old fast bowlers can have days of triumph in it.Nehra would hope for a pleasant swansong tomorrow, when he’s going to end his international career that lasted close to 19 years. That’s a remarkably long career span for a fast bowler; unfortunately, though, Nehra did not play much for India in these nearly 19 years.Nehra had almost everything — he’s a tall man, and he had the pace, swing and ability to move the ball off the pitch. At one time, he had the record for the fastest ball ever bowled by an Indian bowler. Above all, he’s a left-arm paceman, making the right-handers vulnerable to even his stock delivery, which is angled across them. Over time, he became more skilful, mastering the yorker and change of pace.But Nehra’s Test career lasted only five years, and though his ODI career lasted 10 years, he played only 120 matches in that time. What went wrong?  Body blowIt was his body, often called “brittle” or “fragile”, due to which he was labelled “injury-prone”. He was plagued by injuries through 19 years of his international career. He had 12 major surgeries, and his career became a cycle of surgery-rehab-training, repeated again and again. Perhaps a better physical strengthening regimen in his teenage years could have helped avert all that pain, or perhaps he was marked out for a lifetime of injury and pain.Still, he leaves behind memories of brilliance, the most brilliant being the 6/23 he took against England in the 2003 World Cup. Inevitably, Nehra was carrying an injury — it was an ankle injury, leaving his foot swollen and very painful. How did he bowl, and bowl so brilliantly, despite the injury? Just through bloody-minded determination, said his captain, Sourav Ganguly.Alas, Nehra’s career had few other moments of such brilliance. Senior proNehra is the only active Indian player who first played for India in the 1990s. Earlier this month, long before the team for the T20I series against New Zealand was announced, Nehra had declared that the November 1 T20I game would be his final international game. Evidently, the selectors, Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri had assured him a final hurrah at his home ground in Delhi.Fittingly, his last game is a T20 match, because the latter half of his career was made possible only due to T20 cricket. India’s bad recordCan Nehra help India secure their first T20I win over New Zealand? India have lost all their five T20Is against the Black Caps. But will Nehra actually get to play? Remember, he’s not in the squad on form, he’s in the squad on emotion. He last played for India in February and was excluded from India’s last four T20I games. But since he’s been brought into the squad for this one game, we can be sure that he’ll play. India’s ODI series win over New Zealand was very creditable, but New Zealand fought like tigers and in T20 cricket, the margins will be even smaller. Kohli and Co. will have to work hard to earn a farewell win for Nehra.Nehra filesBorn: April 29, 1979, Delhi Test debutSri Lanka at Colombo, Feb 24, 1999 Last TestPakistan at Rawalpindi, Apr 13, 2004 ODI debutZimbabwe at Harare, Jun 24, 2001Last ODIPakistan at Mohali, March 30, 2011 T201 debutSri Lanka at Johannesburg, Dec 9, 2009 Last T20IEngland in Colombo, Feb 1, 2017* (He’s almost certain to play the T20I against the Kiwis tomorrow as his last international game) TESTS 17Wkts 44ODIs 120Wkts 157T-20Is 26Wkts  34

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