‘The name I am going to give is Ashish Nehra’: Moeen Ali’s unequivocal praise for the former India pacer

At RCB, Moeen Ali worked with Ashish Nehra, and the former India fast bowler impressed him a lot there with his cricketing nous.

Updated on: Aug 3, 2026, 07:20:37 IST

Written by Prateek Srivastava

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Former England all-rounder Moeen Ali rates Gujarat Titans head coach Ashish Nehra very highly and calls him the ‘greatest cricket brain’ he has come across in his long career. When Ali played for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the Indian Premier League, Nehra was the bowling coach of the side. That’s where the Englishman learned that the former India pacer was an extraordinary strategist.

Moeen Ali played under MS Dhoni at CSK too. (X)

Ali praising Nehra also means that he rates him higher than Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The batting allrounder also played for Chennai Super Kings for a few years, so he knows what MSD is like. While there is an overwhelming majority, not just nationally but internationally, that believes MSD is the best cricket brain in recent years, having won three ICC titles and five IPL titles as captain, Ali is on Nehra’s side.

Also Read: Bhuvneshwar Kumar turns off Ravichandran Ashwin’s ODI recall initiative: 'I've already played for India'

"For me, a cricketing brain is somebody who knows almost every situation of the game," Moeen said on the Beard Before Wicket podcast.

"Someone who's got an answer, or a theory, for every situation. They talk about all aspects. Why somebody is not that good, why somebody is good, what should happen in this situation, what could happen.

"But he's got something. And behind that something, there's either data or evidence. 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," he added.

Ashish Nehra at Gujarat Titans. (ANI Pic Service)

Three finals in five years under Ashish Nehra

Nehra, in his first year with GT as head coach, also the first season for the franchise in the IPL, helped the team, under Hardik Pandya, lift the trophy. The Gujarat-based team has since played two more finals. So, three finals in five seasons is a great reflection on Nehra’s nous as a cricket coach. Under him, the team is consistent for sure, having missed the play-offs just once in five years. That’s extraordinary consistency. It should not come as a surprise that Ali, who recently featured in the Vitality Blast, has put Nehra ahead of MSD and the rest.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prateek Srivastava
Prateek Srivastava is a senior sports journalist having been in the profession for two decades now. He started his print career with the India Today Group and later also worked for the Asian Age. In 2009, sensing the wind of change, he switched to the digital media and joined Mobile ESPN. There, he covered the 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2010 Hockey World Cup as a venue reporter. He did plenty of voice-over work too, over there. After leaving Mobile ESPN, Prateek went on to work for Cricketnext, Gocricket and Cricbuzz. At Gocricket (Times Internet Limited), he covered the 2014 T20 World from Bangladesh. There he also received a team leadership award, given at the end of the month. Prateek has also covered the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, this time working for Sportz Interactive. He also worked for Chinese giants Alibaba over two years and led their ""Short News"" content team at UC Browser. While cricket is Prateek’s expertise, he has also done a lot of golf. In fact, he has covered India’s first two European Tour events back in the late noughties. He has also done extensive writing on football having been associated with the Indian Super League for three seasons. Finally, Prateek is a literature aficionado and swears by Philip Roth and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and when he doesn’t joke, he is usually quiet and at work.Read More

Get live cricket scores, match updates, schedules, results and ICC rankings. Follow the latest news, statistics and performances of top teams and players on Hindustan Times.