The former Indian batsman turned commentator and cricket expert, Virender Sehwag, has revealed the key behind Ashish Nehra’s fitness as he has said that the fast bowler undergoes a rigorous schedule when he is not playing international cricket,
“The secret behind Nehra’s fitness is when is not playing international cricket, he spends almost 8 hours in the gym (two sessions of 4 hours each). And if today he is a part of the T20 team, it is because he has passed the ‘yo-yo’ test. He scored almost 17-18 in the yo-yo test, touching Virat Kohli’s score,” Sehwag told India TV.
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Nehra’s selection in the side came as a surprise as in past few months, the first criteria which a player has to fulfill is to clear the yo-yo test and to look at the age of Nehra, everyone was surprised how he cleared the test when players like Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina failed to get the desired mark.
Commenting on this issue, Sehwag said that being a fast bowler is a boon for Nehra and he is also touching Virat Kohli’s mark in this aspect,
“Nehra is a fast bowler and never faces any issues while running. So, he doesn’t endure many problems in clearing the “yo-yo” test. Nehra likes to stay fit and spend time in the gym. It is not that he is doing it forcefully. He likes to run, swim and I think he would have easily covered the distance of 20 meters in the yo-yo test. He has also an advantage of his height… he is over 6 feet and has a long stride,” he added.
Nehra has had undergone a total of 12 surgeries in his 18-year-old career and now only plays the shortest format of the game for India. The last ODI he played was way back in 2011, and he had already given up playing Test cricket a long ago, without announcing his retirement from that format of the game.
Nehra, recently himself, admitted that he now possesses the stamina of bowling only four overs, a job which he is perfect.
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Since his comeback in the year 2016, Nehra has been one of the best bowlers for India in the shortest format of the game and is also a guide to other fast bowlers, who might get confused in the crucial situations in this shortest format of the game.
With Indian team set to face Australia sans Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav in the shortest format of the game, Nehra will add the experience in the Indian bowling unit, which now seems to be lacking in limited over format, since the day selectors have opted for the rest strategy.
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