Ashish Nehra set to mentor RCB in IPL 2018

The former Indian cricketer Ashish Nehra is all set to start his second innings as he has been appointed as the mentor of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). He will take over the duties in the next season of Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2018. Nehra hung his boots in the last month after the first of the three T20I s against New Zealand in Delhi at his home ground. However, he never denied a possibility of taking up a coaching role at the highest level.

The lanky left-arm pacer was given a grand send-off by his teammates and the spectators at Ferozshah Kotla Stadium last month. He served Indian cricket at the international level for almost 18 years after making his debut in 1999. His career was marred with a lot of injuries and he also had many surgeries to his body. Though he made his come back stunningly in the shortest format and also played in the World T20 in 2016 which was held in India.

Kohli recommended Nehra ji?

According to the reports in Mumbai Mirror, Ashish Nehra will take up the mentoring role for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the next edition of IPL. It is also being learnt that the skipper Virat Kohli recommended his name to the franchise and right away he was confirmed for the position. The official announcement is yet to be made on the development. Nehra himself hasn’t responded in public at the moment but some of his former teammates responded positively when asked about the matter.

Naturally, his job will not be confined to just mentoring the players as the bowling coach of RCB Allan Donald has parted ways with the franchise. Also, Bharat Arun has joined the Indian team as the bowling coach and thereby there is every possibility that Nehra’s role might double up during the season. The young bowlers across the world will surely benefit from the experienced cricketer as he will provide key inputs to them and it would be interesting to see if he makes any difference to the fortunes of the franchise.