Ashish Nehra trends, memes galore on Twitter after Pakistani conspiracy theorist confuses him with Neeraj Chopra

The "Ashish Nehra is running for UK Prime Minister" comments on Twitter originated when a Pakistani conspiracy theorist and political commentator Zaid Hamid, whose Twitter account mind you in India is restricted, confused the former India fast bowler with India's Olympic gold medallist javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra.

It's been close to three months since Gujarat Titans won IPL 2022 under the guidance of head coach Ashish Nehra, and about a month since India's England tour, where the former India pacer was an expert and commentator but on Wednesday (August 10), out of nowhere, Ashish Nehra was one of the top social media trends in India. Twitter was flooded with memes and hilarious comments about Nehra so much so that even former India opener and Nehra's teammate Virender Sehwag also became a part of it. For it became a trend, one that could give a tough competition to 'dekh rahe ho Binod' or if we go back a little, to the ice bucket challenge. And all this happened without any fault (or achievement) or knowledge of Nehra. In fact, the irony is, Nehra doesn't even have a social media account on any platform.

Ashish Nehra and Neeraj Chopra

The "Ashish Nehra is the first Indian cricketer to win Olympic gold" or "Ashish Nehra is running for UK Prime Minister" comments on Twitter originated when a Pakistani conspiracy theorist and political commentator Zaid Hamid, whose Twitter account mind you in India is restricted, confused the former India fast bowler with India's Olympic gold medallist javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra.

There are two factors behind this erroneous tweet going viral and creating an Ashish Nehra trend on Twitter. Firstly, Neeraj Chopra didn't even compete in the men's javelin throw event in Commonwealth Games 2022, Birmingham. He was ruled out of the competition due to an injury. Secondly, and of course, more prominently, Chopra being referred as Ashish Nehra.

What should have been a congratulatory message for Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem, who created history by winning an individual gold medal for them at CWG 2022, shattering the Games record, turned out to be a breeding ground for meme-fest.

Here are some of the comments on the Ashish Nehra trend that followed on Twitter

For the record, Nadeem and Chopra are great friends. The ace Indian javelin thrower was one of the first to congratulate Nadeem for breaching the 90m mark, which he himself hasn't been able to do yet, and win gold at the Commonwealth Games beating world champion Anderson Peters.

Nadeem had missed the podium in Tokyo Olympics last year and also in the world championships a week before Birmingham Games.