The 38-year-old pacer from Delhi, Ashish Nehra, will bid adieu to international cricket when India take on New Zealand in the first T20 international match, to be held at Feroz Shah Kotla stadium on Wednesday.

Eagerly waiting for his farewell game, Nehra revealed his secret mantra that kept him spirited throughout his illustrious career. “If you can, then sprint. If not, then run. Can’t run? Then jog. Won’t jog? Then at least walk! Can’t walk? Then crawl but just keep on moving.”

The Kotla T20I will be Nehra’s 164th international match. It took the southpaw speedster 20 years and as many as 12 surgeries to reach the milestone.

However, Nehra never seemed discontent with his life and always tried to light up the dressing room with his happy-go-lucky nature.

“Trust me, I have had an eventful 20 years. I am not a very emotional person. The next 20 years is what I am looking forward to. Hopefully, it will be as eventful as it has been since I started playing for Delhi in 1997,” Nehra asserted.

Recalling the 2003 World Cup final, which India could have won but lost by 125 runs, Nehra said: “It’s been a great journey. May be one regret. If I could change anything in these 20 years, that afternoon in Johannesburg during the 2003 World Cup final. But nothing else as it’s all about destiny.”

The soil of Kotla has witnessed the rise of Nehra, since his inception in the game of cricket. He played his first Ranji Trophy game here and shared dressing room with Delhi’s legendary cricketers such as Raman Lamba, Ajay Sharma, Atul Wassan and Robin Singh junior.

“During my first Ranji Trophy game at Kotla, Delhi team had late Raman Lamba, Ajay Sharma, Atul Wassan and Robin Singh junior. Raman bhaiya and Ajay bhaiya, I have grown up bowling to them at Sonnet nets. Difficult to forget Raman Lamba. Dada player thaa (dominating batsman),” he recalled.

“And Ajay Sharma, well I can tell you about his cricket. With no disrespect to all the current top spinners in our country — Ajay bhaiya would have murdered them even on rank turners. He was that good at the domestic level,” the pacer added.

Nehra reminisced one memory of his debut Ranji game that he dismissed Ajay Jadeja for duck in both the innings. “I remember bowling one-change in my debut Ranji game as Robin Junior and Wassan (his last first-class match) were bowling with the new ball. I got Ajay Jadeja for a duck in both innings.”

Hailing Jadeja for his ‘cricketing acumen’, Nehra expressed: “For me, Ajay Jadeja and Mahendra Singh Dhoni are the two shrewdest cricketing brains I have ever interacted with.”

(With inputs from agencies)