Sunil Gavaskar has cast doubts over the participation of Ashish Nehra in his farewell game at Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in New Delhi.
The former Indian cricketer has opined the settled pace attack might prevent Nehra’s place in the playing XI,
“Ashish Nehra announcing his retirement also makes a bit of an issue, for with him not being selected for the first two games, how are the selectors going to pick him in the playing XI in the first T20 match of the new series against New Zealand? Selections are not done on emotion but simply on merit. Nehra deserved to play against the Aussies but wasn’t picked and Bhuvaneshwar and Bumrah can’t be dropped, so how will Nehra be given the farewell he deserves? That will be interesting to see,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for TOI
Later though, Nehra couldn’t find a place in the final XI during first two T20Is against Australia, and then, he also decided to retire from international cricket so as the settled pace attack can continue.
Nehra wanted to retire at his home ground i. e. The Feroz Shah Kotla stadium and now that will be the last game in which he will be the part of the team. Evidently, he will be there in the 15 member squad for the T20I series, but it does not guarantee him a place in playing XI, even his last international game.
Sunil Gavaskar further also wrote that it would have been interesting had the third T20I not been washed out,
“The Hyderabad game could have been a terrific one, but rains over the last couple of weeks meant that the outfield was never going to recover in time for a game to take place,” he added.
The third and the deciding T20I between India and Australia, in Hyderabad, was washed out due to the soggy outfield. There was no toss conducted, which could have helped to know whether Nehra was a part of the team or not.
There was no presentation ceremony as well, due to security reasons. Meanwhile, the T20I series between India and New Zealand starts on November 1 and place of Nehra in playing XI will be the biggest suspense going into the game