NEW DELHI, FEB 22: ``It (my selection) came as a big surprise to me. I hadn't expected it so soon,'' was the 20-year-old Ashish Nehra's reaction on his selection to the Indian team for the Asian Test Championship match against Sri Lanka. He is only in his second Ranji Trophy season, having made his debut against Haryana at Kotla last year.Clearly Nehra's recent successes tilted the scales in his favour against the already tested Debashish Mohanty and Dodda Ganesh. The six-foot-one student from Rajdhani College, who had five wickets (three and two in the two innings) in his debut match last season, had an excellent outing against Tamil Nadu in the Super League at Ferozeshah Kotla earlier this week. The final year student scalped six for 63 in the first innings and his earlier efforts in the Duleep Trophy (two wickets in the first innings and one in the second against South, two in first innings and four in second against Central) seemed to have impressed the National selectors.Left-arm Nehra's strengthis the deceptive pace and the deliveries that come quick off the wicket. Of late, he has learnt to bowl the bouncer to good effect. Every batsman who has faced Nehra in domestic cricket, including Navjot Sidhu, Ajay Jadeja and Robin Singh Sr, have rated him very high.India haven't had a left-arm medium pacer to share the new ball in Test matches for a long time. ``I'll try my best to take full advantage of this opportunity and do well,'' said Nehra while making last-minute arrangements before his departure for Colombo.In fact, the India-select did not have proper shoes (ankle-high) needed for a fast bowler. Jadeja, who called up to congratulate him, promised to provide him a pair before he left for Colombo, as they are not available in the market.Nehra, who joined Sonnet Club five years ago, is another product of the assembly line which has already seen the likes of Surinder Khanna, Randhir Singh, Manoj Prabhakar, Raman Lamba, Ajay Sharma, Atul Wassan and Sanjeev Sharma represent Indiaearlier.Till as recently as last year, Nehra had problems with his fitness, being weak in body structure. He managed to play only three Ranji games in his first season, including the Super League match against Bengal at Kotla. On advice from his coach Tarak Sinha, Nehra set up a gym at his Cantonment home and trained hard this season.Nehra strangely did not make the Delhi Schools team for under-16 tournament. But he did play for DDCA in u-16 and went on to represent the zone. He also played in U-19 but that curiously was only after having made his Ranji debut!Nehra hails from a middle-class family and his father is an employee in the Delhi Administration and his mother is a school teacher. To play for the country has quite naturally been his dream and now the opportunity is right there in front of him. ``I'll surely learn a lot about the game from the seniors in the Indian team,'' added Nehra cautiously.
