On Monday, a banter started between former Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson and New Zealand seamer Mitchell McClenaghan and later on, it also got involved Ashish Nehra and his inclusion into the Indian setup for the Australia T20 series.
As the duo was discussing their face off in the Big Bash League (BBL), Johnson challenged the Kiwi to a face-off for the fastest left arm bowler over the age of 30. Dean Jones crashed the party by joining in with a simple, “Currently Ashish Nehra”.
You going around again old timer? 🙊😜
— Mitchell McClenaghan (@Mitch_Savage) October 8, 2017
https://twitter.com/MitchJohnson398/status/917206913414074368
Currently Ashish Nehra 😜 #onlyjokingchampion https://t.co/7lCzQVg6pO
— Dean Jones AM (@ProfDeano) October 9, 2017
Johnson continued the banter by stating that Nehra definitely has the faster runup. India Twitterati came out in numbers to Nehra ji.
https://twitter.com/MitchJohnson398/status/917211249384890369
As one user pointed out that Nehra’s line and length is much better than others, Johnson replied, “Hahaha really with an Ave over 40 & Strike rate close to 80 ?? Just so you know, we are just having some banter”.
https://twitter.com/MitchJohnson398/status/917222573544398848
Here we are talking about t20 stat.he is part of Indian t20 team not test team..Look at his avg in t20. Its 21.44… pic.twitter.com/wLJLgcMbHn
— Rakesh Rajpurohit 🇮🇳 (@RakeshPurohit55) October 9, 2017
https://twitter.com/kay_297/status/917221837116817409
https://twitter.com/swa_stik/status/917220364362465280
Apparently, India fans weren’t aware of the situation that it was banter. They came out in numbers to defend Nehra who is in the 3-match T20 series against Australia which India lead 1-0. Nehra wasn’t part of the playing XI in the first T20 against Australia which the hosts won by nine wickets (D/L method).