Virat Kohli seeks blessings from Ashish Nehra's parents

Team India captain Virat Kohli sought the blessings of retiring pace bowler Ashish Nehra's parents after the team’s victory against New Zealand in the first T-20 match at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Wednesday.

Speaking exclusively from his Delhi home, Nehra’s father, Diwan Singh said, “After the match, Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan came to us and sought our blessings.” He added, “Virat and Shikhar are Ashish's friends and have been coming to our house from childhood.” 

Turns out the entire family was present at Nehra’s last match as pace bowler. A visibly emotional Singh said, “Me, my wife Sumitra, Ashish's wife, Rushma and their two children Arush and Ariana were at the ground yesterday. This was the first and last match of his that I saw live. I had never watched his game from the ground earlier. In 2002, we went to England to see him play, but he was the 12th man in the Test and on another occasion, we reached late when the ODI series was over.” The senior Nehra added, “I was sitting with Tarak Sinha, whom Ashish respects as his guru.”

As for Nehra’s post-retirement plans, Singh said, “Ashish will decide about his post-retirement plan very shortly. He has a few academies in Uttar Pradesh and will continue to monitor the same.”