Former Team India fast bowler Ashish Nehra had a long but injury-prone career. When Ashish is usually questioned about his peculiar misfortune with recurring injuries, he replies in his witty style:

“Injury mein body phasi hui hai bhaiya, body mein injury nahin hai. (I don’t have injuries in my body, my body is somewhere in the between of those injuries.) “

Talking about the same in an episode of CRED’s masterclass series ‘The Long Game’, Nehra said that he does not have many regrets about his career. However he would have liked to play more Red-ball cricket.

“I am pretty satisfied and happy with the way my career has gone but you always get greedy. What I really wanted was a test cricket ball but because of my injuries, unfortunately, I couldn’t play that much test cricket,” Nehra said.

Ganguly really knew how to run a team- Ashish Nehra

From Mohammad Azharuddin to Virat Kohli, ‘Nehra Ji’ has played international cricket under seven different captains. He was a part of the young group that flourished under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly in the 2000s era.

Ashish Nehra, while speaking in an episode of CRED’s masterclass series ‘The Long Game’, lauded the Prince of Kolkata for his leadership style. He mentioned that Ganguly was the type of skipper who never got irritated when a player was upset with him.

“Sourav Ganguly truly believed that what happens on the cricket ground should stay in the cricket ground. He really knew how to run a team and was clear what he needed from each player and in that bargain, if some player would be upset or angry with him, no problem. He would not take it to his heart,” Nehra stated.

Ashish Nehra also discussed the life lessons he got from playing under Ganguly for so long.  “The most important thing I would say I learned from Saurav Dada was how to keep cool irrespective of the situation.”, Nehra said.

The 42-year old also recounted how Sourav used to call him after the game in his room to discuss about the match, listen peacefully and try to figure out the expectations players have from his as a captain.

“I was one of those guys who used to get really upset with him at times and would show it too. He will not say anything on the ground that time but later in the evening he will call me and say ‘arre Ashu what are you doing?’ Aaja mere kamre mein. And the minute I’d enter,he’d say “Make me a cup of tea”, Nehra added.