Sunil Gavaskar all praise for veteran pacer Ashish Nehra

New Delhi: Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has heaped praise on veteran seamer Ashish Nehra, describing him as a crafty bowler who has proved that “age is just a number”.

Nehra, who was forced into international exile post the 2011 World Cup triumph, made a comeback after almost five years last month. He took a three-wicket haul last night to help India start their Asia Cup campaign with a crushing 45-run win over Bangladesh at Mirpur.

“Ashish Nehra has proven age is just a number. He is mixing his deliveries well and bowling craftily. He has done really well for India so far,” Gavaskar said.
Gavaskar also applauded opener Rohit Sharma, who blasted 83 off 55 balls to anchor India’s innings and take them to 166 for six after they were tottering at 42 for 3 in 7.5 overs.

“Rohit has got the ability to time his innings well. His shot selection has been terrific. He made batting look so easy when others were struggling,” he said.
Rohit was dropped early on by Shakib Al Hasan when he was batting on 21 and the former India opener said that was the turning point of the match.

“The turning point of the match was when Shakib dropped Rohit. You just can’t drop a player like Rohit and especially when he is in this sort of form. Bangladesh will need to go back and do a lot more fielding practice,” said Gavaskar.

The Mumbai batsman shared two crucial partnership — forging 55 runs with Yuvraj Singh (15) for the fourth wicket and 61 runs off 27 balls with Hardik Pandya (31) to help the hosts post 166 for six.

“Rohit Sharma-Hardik Pandya partnership did the trick for India. In T20 format chasing anything above 150 is difficult,” said Gavaskar.