#OTD in 2001: Ashish Nehra made his ODI debut for India

On this day in 2001, left-arm fast bowler Ashish Nehra featured for the first time in the 50-overs format for India. It was the Coca-Cola cup Match 2 between India and Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club.

Although Nehra played his first Test fixture during the 1999 Tour to Sri Lanka under Mohammad Azharuddin’s captaincy, he could only pick up a single wicket and was dropped. 

He returned to the Indian squad for the Test series against Zimbabwe in the Coca-Cola Cup. 

The Delhi-born pacer emerged as the highest wicket-taker in the Test series against Zimbabwe with 11 scalps in two appearances. 

India were playing their first match of the tournament, while Zimbabwe had lost their first fixture to West Indies by 27 runs. 

The toss went in favour of Captain Sourav Ganguly, who opted to field first. Ganguly gave the first over to the debutant Nehra. In the second ball of the over, Nehra delivered a perfect out-swinging delivery, which induced the edge of Alistair Campbell (0), and was caught by wicket-keeper Sameer Dighe. It was an excellent start for the left-arm pacer to his limited-overs career. 

Then Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar picked a couple of wickets within the first hour of the play. Then, in the 13th over, Nehra picked his second wicket, wherein Dirk Viljoen edged out an easy catch to the third slip fielder, Ganguly, in an attempt to drive the ball.  

The Zimbabwe team was dismissed for a score of 133, with Agarkar being the pick of the bowler with three scalps. Nehra finished with figures of 2/33 in 10 overs. 

As for India, Ganguly was dismissed for 2 in the first over. The knock from Sachin Tendulkar (70*) and Hemang Badani (52*) helped the team seal a nine-wicket victory over the hosts. 

After impressive performances during the tour, Nehra cemented his place in the Indian team. 

In the 2003 World Cup, he picked up 15 wickets at an economy of 4.17 and helped the Men in Blue reach the Finals and emerge as a runner-up. 

In 2005, the left-arm pacer picked 6/59 against Sri Lanka and became the first Indian player to register two six-wicket hauls in the 50-overs format. He had picked up 6/23 against England in 2003. 

After playing in the 2011 World Cup, Nehra returned to the Indian team for the 2016 T20 World Cup after doing well in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

He emerged as the joint leading wicket-taker for India with five wickets, which paved the way for them to reach the semi-finals. 

Nehra last played for India in a T20I fixture against New Zealand in November 2017. He picked up a total of 235 wickets in 164 appearances across all the formats.