Ashish Nehra (born April 29, 1979) is an Indian cricketer (left-arm fast bowler) who has represented India at the international level since 1999. 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. 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.
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.
After recovering from the ankle injury that prevented him from playing for the Delhi Ranji Team in the 2007-08 season, Nehra joined the Indian Premier League and signed up for the Mumbai Indians franchise. He won the Man of the Match for the game versus Rajasthan Royals taking three wickets on 7 May 2008. He plays for the Delhi DareDevils from 2009. He was picked up by Sahara Pune Warriors in the latest 2011 IPL Players Auction for a sum of Rs. 3.91 crores. Nehra was ruled out of IPL-4 for first few matches due to a fractured finger on his right hand.
