Ashish Nehra is not the most outspoken cricketer on the planet, however, in the latest interview given to ESPN Cricinfo, Nehra appears very candid about his game, career, challenges and in totality, life.
Sehwag used to drink my share of milk as well: Ashish Nehra
Former Indian batsman Virender Sehwag and Ashish Nehra are great friends. The two cricketers used to go to the practice sessions together on a scooter. It was Viru who used to drive the scooter to the nets and Nehra used to drive it back to the home.
Nehra, speaking on how Sehwag used to wake him up in the morning, said, “I was not a morning person at that point. Viru would come to my house early and wake me up.”
On Sehwag’s love for drinking milk, he said, “When I was 17-18 years old, I didn’t like milk, but Viru was a big fan of it. My parents would offer him milk. And he would have my glass, too. By the time we reached Feroz Shah Kotla, Viru would have had one litre of milk. I would have the fried breakfast served at the ground.”
‘Not aware of Sehwag making fun of me on social media’
Virender Sehwag has given a new name to Ashish after his glorious comeback to the game. He calls him ‘Nehra Ji‘, which along with a mark of respect has some amount of sarcasm attached to it. Nehra does not know what Viru tweets about him but he surely laughs when he gets to know about it from others.
He said, “Honestly, I am not aware. I hear it from other people and I just have a laugh. I know that he is going strong on social media and Hindi commentary. But I am not on any social media. Forget tweets, I don’t even send emails.”
So, who’s Nehra’s favorite bowler?
Being a left arm seamer himself, Nehra enjoyed watching Chaminda Vaas bowl the most. He said, “I really enjoyed Chaminda Vaas. He is a very low-profile guy, but if you see his record and the kind of hot conditions and pitches he played on, in a country where they were made for [Muttiah] Muralitharan, [Kumar] Dharmasena or any spinners, look what he did. He got 400 ODI wickets.”
Nehra is soon going to be 38 but he ceases to stop himself from playing the game. He has missed a lot of cricket because of many injuries he has had in his cricket career and now he wants to make use of whatever opportunities coming his way.