Ashish Nehra Reveals How He Got Shoe Stitched To Last Debut Test

During a chat on Aakash Chopra's show Aakashvani, Nehra recalled how he had only one pair of shoes which he used for Ranji Trophy games as well as his Test debut against Sri Lanka in Colombo in 1999

Photo: AFP

Ex-India speedster Ashish Nehra had an injury-littered yet successful career and remained an integral part of the Indian cricket team until his retirement. After making an impressive T20 comeback in team India in the year 2016, Nehra decided to bring an end to his glorious 18 years career in the year 2017. During a chat on Aakash Chopra's show Aakashvani, Nehra recalled how he had only one pair of shoes which he used for Ranji Trophy games as well as his Test debut against Sri Lanka in Colombo in 1999. "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," Nehra said. Talking about practising bowling action at the Delhi Cantonment Railway station with the club's bowling coach, Nehra said: "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 pair also discussed a game they had played at the Race Course ground in Delhi for their club team. "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," said Chopra as the two had a good laugh going down memory lane. Nehra played his last game at his home ground Feroz Shah Kotla, which was a T20 game against New Zealand. The left-arm pacer played 17 Tests, 120 ODIs and 27 T20Is for India.