Cricketing world is replete with prodigies turning into stars or a tale of heroic comebacks, and the former has seen many Caribbean players being clubbed into that league. Ashley Nurse neither belonged to the former category nor did he make any rip-roaring noise after making his List-A debut for Guyana in 2007, which turned out to be anything but satisfying, but he certainly was one of those cricketers who toiled hard to reach where he is now.

After a not-so-magnanimous debut, the offie kept on playing his trade in the West Indian domestic competitions, which led to his T20I debut against Pakistan in April 2011. Failure against the visiting Indian and Pakistani teams meant he was out of the reckoning for long despite securing a match haul of 14 for 40 in a regional four-day competition in 2013 to help Barbados get the better of Windward Islands by a huge margin of an innings and 101 runs.