People are noticing me because I am 36: Ashish Nehra

Ashish Nehra

Ashish Nehra is one of the leading wicket-taker this year's Indian Premier League (IPL) with 22 wickets in 15 matches.

He earned his third Man-of-the-Match (MoM) award of this season after his match winning magical spell against Royal Challengers Bangalore where he picked up 3 wickets by giving away just 28 runs.

Commenting on his MoM awards tally, Nehra said that it's difficult for a fast bowler to pick that many awards in one tournament.

"I have got three or four Man-of-the-Match awards this season and that says it all, it is not easy for a fast bowler to pick up that many awards in one season," Nehra was quoted saying by iplt20.com.

According to him, this is his best IPL season so far, he is averaging 18.24 with an economy rate of 7.03.

"If you see stats-wise, then I have had my best season in the IPL. But I can't just say that this is the best IPL I have had till date. Even in 2008 when I played for Mumbai Indians or for the Delhi Daredevils in 2009 and 2010, I was bowling really well. At that time obviously I was five years younger.

Left-arm fast bowler said that people will remember you only when you perform and I have an added advantage of my age, which gets noticed.

"It is not that Ashish Nehra has changed. People are noticing it more because I am 36 and a guy at this age is doing something unbelievable in T20s. But I have been doing the same things that I have been doing over the last ten years. When you pick wickets, people remember you more."

Nehra's double strike when he picked Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers changed the scenario of the match, otherwise RCB would have posted a healthy target on the slow Ranchi pitch.He said added saying that picking crucial wickets of top order batsmen was important on the slow pitch.

"It was a very slow pitch and picking up wickets of their top order was crucial. We picked up Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, otherwise they would have scored at least 160. Chasing that much would have been really difficult. You could see that even chasing 140 we went till the last over. Once the ball got old, it was a much better pitch to bowl on for a spinner than a fast bowler."