Former England cricketer Moeen Ali has picked Gujarat Titans (GT) coach Ashish Nehra as the ‘best cricketing brain’ he has ever come across. Moeen, who has played under some of the best captains and coaches in the world in his long career, said that the time with Nehra at Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in 2018-19 showed him how adroit the former Indian pacer was in running a team.
Moeen is not the first to sing praises of Nehra, who had an excellent albeit injury-marred career for the country. His appointment as RCB’s bowling coach was his first exposure to the job, and he was written off because the unbalanced team didn’t do well in the league. He was given more power at GT in 2022 and won them the title in the first year, becoming the first Indian
coach to win the league.
Since then, GT has failed to qualify for the playoffs only once in five years, despite often fielding teams which are not predicted as favorites at the start of the season.
“For me, a cricketing brain is somebody who knows almost every situation of the game,” Moeen said on Beard Before Wicket. “Someone who’s got an answer—or a theory—for every situation. Like, they just talk about all aspects. ‘Why he’s not that good, why he is good, what should happen in this situation, what could happen’,” he said.
Moeen said whether those ideas work or not is almost irrelevant.
“But he’s got something,” he added. “And behind that something, there’s either data or evidence. Like, ‘It’s happened before, and this happened, and this is why this can happen.’ So the name I am going to give is Ashish Nehra. He is the coach of Gujarat; I had him at RCB for a couple of years. When it comes to cricket brain, this guy knows what he’s talking about. Knows how to get a team environment going, knows how to deal with people, players, and coaches. Amazing, amazing cricket brain.”
