How ardent 'fan' Virender Sehwag reacted to Ashish Nehra's inclusion in the Indian squad

Sehwag’s (R) adulation for Nehra (L) is common knowledge

It is a well-known fact about how former Indian opener Virender Sehwag admires and respects Indian fast bowler, Ashish Nehra. During the 2015 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Sehwag had taken onto Twitter to praise Nehra’s 3/17 against Delhi Daredevils for the now-banned team Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

After the teams for the limited-overs tour for Australia were announced, there were quite a few surprise inclusions – namely Rishi Dhawan and Brainder Sran in the ODI squad while Suresh Raina missed out on being selected in the 50-over format.

However, the T20I squad included returns to the Indian squad for senior players, Yuvraj Singh and Ashish Nehra. Yuvraj last played an international for India in the 2014 T20 World Cup while Nehra last played for India in the 2011 World Cup, which India won eventually.

Sehwag reacted to Nehra’s inclusion with delight as he appreciated the Delhi bowler’s comeback to the national squad on Twitter with a couple of tweets. ‘Nehra ji’, as the bowler is fondly called by Sehwag, last featured in the semi-finals of the 2011 World Cup against Pakistan where he finished with figures of 2/33 and helped India defend 260.

An injury kept Nehra out of the final and since then he has not featured for the national team in any format. In the IPL 8, Nehra bowled brilliantly as he finished the season with 22 wickets in 16 games. He had a healthy average of 20.40 and an acceptable run-rate of 7.24.

This good run with CSK definitely impressed the selectors enough to pick him for the three T20Is on the 26th, 29th and 31st of January, 2016 in Australia. The 36-year-old Nehra will be hoping to perform well and earn a place in the T20 World Cup to be held in India during the months of February and March, 2016.

Here are the tweets from Sehwag on Nehra’s inclusion in the T20 squad:

Here is the what Sehwag tweeted during IPL 8:

Nehra Ji is back wow

— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) December 21, 2015

Old is gold

— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) December 21, 2015

Wow old is gold nehra ji on fire . Love ur work nehra ji keep doing that ...

— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) April 9, 2015