Nehra started playing first-class cricket for his
hometown, Delhi , in the 1997/1998 season and
made his Test debut against Sri Lanka at
Colombo in 1999 and his ODI debut against
Zimbabwe at Harare in 2001. On his Test
debut, Nehra started out well, dismissing
Marvan Atapattu early but then failed to pick
up any more wickets. He was also part of the Indian team 's
run at the 2003 World Cup in Sout
h Africa. It
was there against England , that he got his
career-best ODI figures of six for 23. His
performance in the other matches in the World
Cup were also noteworthy. However inconsistency and successive back
and ankle injuries have prevented him from
cementing his place in the Indian team . His
career statistics are better in ODI cricket than
in Test cricket, but with 144 ODI wickets at an
average of 30.54 his average is higher(lesser
the best) than all three of his main
competitors for fast bowling places in the
Indian team – Irfan Pathan , Zaheer Khan and
Ajit Agarkar , who all have bowling averages
below 30. The new crop of fast bowlers like
Munaf Patel , RP Singh and Ishant Sharma also
add to the competition. Nevertheless, Nehra
completed recovery from a bowel injury in
March 2006 and is trying to make a comeback
into the Indian team . He hit the headlines with creditable showings
in the second season of the IPL, and was
recalled to the ODI squad for the tour of West
Indies in June 2009 after 4 years due to an
injury to Zaheer Khan . In 2011 Cricket World Cup, Nehra played his
first game vs South Africa. He was expensive
giving away 65 runs during 8.4 wicketless
overs. He gave away 16 runs in 4 balls when
he had to defend 13 runs in the last over. After
this, many thought Nehra's world cup was
over. He was, however, a surprise inclusion
against Pakistan in the semi-final ahead of
Ravichandran Ashwin. Nehra redeemed himself
by being the most economical bowler for his
side taking 2 wickets in 10 overs for a mere 33
runs as India beat Pakistan by 29 runs. He
however could not play the final due to a
fractured finger on his right hand. After
recovering from his injury, Nehra made himself
available for the 2011 ODI series in England;
after being ignored, he commented that he was
'deeply hurt'. Despite the backing of former
Indian bowler Manoj Prabhakar and a decent
Ranji season, he was ignored for the
subsequent tour of Australia as well.
09/03/2025
