Nehra also revealed he had practiced with stones at railway station.
Former Indian fast bowler Ashish Nehra took a trip down memory lane with his former teammate Aakash Chopra during a candid chat on the latter’s famous talk show “Aakashvani” – where the Delhi speed merchant has revealed some unheard anecdotes about his initial playing days.
During the chat show, Nehra, who retired from the game in 2017, revealed that he only had a single pair of shoes which he used for Ranji Trophy games, as well as, his Test debut against Sri Lanka in 1999 and even he used to alter the shoes after each innings and somehow the pair survived the Colombo Test.
He had dismissed the former Sri Lanka skipper Marvan Atapattu for his maiden wicket in the whites for the Indian national side. The left-arm pacer Nehra played 17 Tests, 120 ODIs, and 27 T20Is for India.
Nehra told Chopra: “I wore them for the first time in Ranji Trophy and had only one pair which I took them with me to play in my first Test match in 1999. I still remember I used to get the shoe stitched after each innings and that is how it survived the entire Test.”
The commentator further asked Nehra about practicing bowling action at the Delhi Cantonment Railway station with the club's bowling coach and he revealed that they were used to practice with stones.
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He recalled, “I wasn't alone. There used to be a bunch of us who would go to drop sir at the railway station. He would ask us to show him different bowling actions. I remember we would pick up the stones at the station and bowl with them.”
The two also discussed a game they had played at the Race Course ground in Delhi for their club team. In that match, Aakash was the captain of the side, revealing he was asked by the coach why he didn’t bowl Nehra from a particular end.
Chopra added, “You remember we had to bowl into the wind and against the wind? The coach asked me why I didn't bowl you from that end. I told him that you wanted to bowl from the other end.”
(With IANS Inputs)