Ashish Nehra says L Balaji was more popular than Imran Khan during the 2004 tour

Ashish Nehra was one of the best bowlers of India who was very effective with his left-arm medium pace. His career was marred with injuries especially when he was at the peak of his career. Nonetheless, Nehra has been a part of many of Team India's glorious triumphs which include the 2002 Natwest tri-series in England, the historic tour of Pakistan in 2003/04, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 etc. Meanwhile, the veteran bowler has spoken about another medium pacer in that Pakistan tour who had become very famous in that bilateral series. 

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'He was more popular than Imran Khan': Ashish Nehra

During a recent interaction on a cricket segment which is hosted by the official broadcasters of the IPL, Nehra said that the only thing that he remembers is that Laxmipathy Balaji was more popular than Pakistan's World Cup-winning skipper Imran Khan according to him on that tour. The 2011 World Cup-winner also added that the Tamil Nadu cricketer was hitting sixes left, right and centre.

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India tour of Pakistan 2003/04

India had visited the neighbouring country for the first time after 1989. The Indian team led by Sourav Ganguly were in  Pakistan for a bilateral series which included five One Day Internationals and three Tests. The Ganguly-led side created history by winning the ODI series 3-2 and the Test series 2-1. On that tour, Virender Sehwag became the first Indian batsman to score a triple century in Test cricket while Rahul Dravid registered his highest Test score of 270 in the series-deciding Test match at Rawalpindi. 

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