Nehra announces he will retire on November 1

Veteran India pacer Ashish Nehra on Thursday said he will call an end to his cricket career after the first Twenty20 International (T20I) against New Zealand at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi on November 1.

"I have spoken to the team management and the selection committee (about retiring). The game against New Zealand is in Delhi so you can't get better than that when you retire in front of your home crowd," the 38-year-old said at a press conference ahead of the third T20I against Australia here.

"It is always better to retire when people are saying why rather than why not. I always wanted to retire on a high," he added.

"I think Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar) and (Jasprit) Bumrah are doing really well. And that this is the way forward for me."

Nehra is currently part of three-match T20I series against Australia but he didn't feature in the first two matches.

Nehra has so far played 17 Tests (44 wickets), 120 One-Day Internationals (157 wickets) and 26 T20Is (34 wickets) for the country.

He was part of the Indian squad which won the 2011 Cricket World Cup at home.

He was also a member of the Indian squad that finished runners-up to Australia in the 2003 World Cup.

Nehra, who made his debut in 1999, said that he is also done with his Indian Premier League (IPL) career.

"There will be a gap of five months between the next edition of IPL and November. So I can easily play in IPL. But I train only to play for India and once I retire from international cricket, I will not play in the IPL as well," the left-armer said.

--IANS

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