Nehra: I’m not the bowling attack leader

Cricket365
February 25, 2016

Veteran India seamer Ashish Nehra says his return to the national side has been a long journey, but said he was pleased that all his hard work in the nets and domestically had paid off.

Nehra returned to the T20 side this year, at the age of 36, and played against Australia and Sri Lanka, taking seven wickets in six games at a good economy rate. Before that, he'd last played for India in 2011.

Nehra said on Cricinfo: "It is very difficult to make a comeback. I've always said comebacks are much more difficult than a debut.

"Even when I was out, injury or no injury, I always trained to play pressure cricket, not just domestic cricket. If you look to play only domestic cricket, you'll realise that you are even out from that in six months to a year.

"If you have to bowl 10 balls in the ground, you have to bowl 30-40 balls at the nets. In the end, I got my result".

As for being the leader of the attack in the absence of Mohammed Shami, Nehra said he was but a cog in the wheel. While he was pleased to chat to younger players and help out, he didn't consider himself to be the leader.

He said of the idea: "I don't believe in that. In the end, it's not that I can't have a bad day. Everybody shares the same job.

"Being the senior bowler, I've got so much experience so on the field and off the field, I always try to talk to Hardik [Pandya] or [Jasprit] Bumrah.

"The team management has asked me to do that as well but I'm happy to take that job."