5 cricketers who had the longest international career in Indian cricket history

#3 Ashish Nehra (February 1999 – November 2017)

Ashish Nehra was given a fitting farewell at the Ferozshah Kotla in Delhi in November 2017

Ashish Nehra is one of those rare fast bowlers whose careers spanned more than 15 years. Considering the fact that fast bowlers are injury-prone, Nehra defied age and injury to keep coming back.

Nehra made his debut way back in 1999 against Sri Lanka. He played just 17 Tests in the span of 5 years as injuries constantly troubled him. But his exploits with the white ball were better. His 6/23 against England in the 2003 World Cup is a spell which will be etched in Indian cricket history forever. But in 2005, he went through a major ankle surgery which kept him out of action for a long time. However, he made a strong comeback and along with Zaheer Khan, Nehra was the leader of the Indian attack in ODI cricket. He was a part of the World Cup-winning squad in 2011.

However, despite performing decently in the 2011 World Cup, Nehra who was nursing an injury never got into the ODI team after recovering fully. But his exploits in the IPL helped him earn a recall in the T20 side in January 2016 and he was a part of Indian T20 squad for more than 18 months before retiring in November 2017.

It brought an end to an injury-plagued career which lasted for almost 19 years. Ashish Nehra took 235 wickets in international cricket (44 in Tests, 157 in ODIs and 34 in T20Is).