Have to be Mentally Strong to Bowl in Death Overs: Ashish Nehra

Ashish Nehra. (Photo: BCCI)

Veteran India pacer Ashish Nehra believes that bowlers need to be mentally strong to bowl in the death overs.

“My simple thinking about bowling in the death, number one is that mentally you have to be very strong. There are so many times I have seen that the first ball you bowl goes for a six, the second ball also goes for a six and you feel maybe this over is going for 25-26 runs.” Nehra said, adding:

But if you are mentally strong and even if the first two balls go for sixes you can still bowl a 15-run over. Those 5-10 runs make a big difference.

Admitting that bowling yorkers is not an easy task, Nehra quipped if it were in his hands he would have bowled all six deliveries as yorkers.

"Everybody's mindset is different. Yorker is one word which I hear in T20 cricket, the more and more I play. It is very easy to say like everyone says 'Oh, bowl a yorker!' because somebody who never bowled, he doesn't know what it takes to bowl a yorker," he said.

It is very easy to say ‘go and bowl a yorker’. If it’s in my hands to bowl good yorkers I can bowl six. It is not that easy.

When asked about the Champions Trophy, Nehra stated that the national team management knows what he can deliver.

It is not necessary that they will be looking for a left-arm seamer. And it is not that I am on trial. Everybody knows if I am fit what I can do. If the team management, the captain and coach want me and if I am ready and raring to go, and if I am fit then definitely I will play.

“But it is not that the team is looking for a left-arm fast bowler. But if you have a left-arm fast bowler it does make a difference or if you have three left-arm fast bowlers and if you have two right-handers it makes a difference,” he said.

“Every team likes variety. We have people like Bhuvneshwar Kumar who can swing the ball or Jasprit Bumrah, who is really gold with the old ball. If you do well there is always a scope," Nehra further said.

For Nehra, 37, recovery is as important as training.

For me, recovery is as important as training. If I say it doesn’t make a difference, at my age I will be lying. At the age of 38, not only fast bowlers but even for a batsman it becomes difficult.

"You have to put in extra yards even for recovery or training or practice and that is what I have been doing," he said.

He also admitted playing T20 has given him a second lease of life.

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