If someone talks about the best and most tactical minds in cricket, it is MS Dhoni. Famous for making the right tactical decision to hand the final over to Joginder Sharma during the final of the 2007 T20 World Cup or scoring fast stumpings and runs under pressure, Dhoni is generally considered as one of the top cricket players for his tactical decision making. But former England all-rounder Moeen Ali recently surprised cricket fans by not making a mention of Dhoni but named Ashish Nehra as the best cricket player with the best cricket brain in the world.
Moeen has recently put it in his own perspective in the podcast Beard Before Wicket, and explained the basic criteria of an elite tactical mind. The English all-rounder says a true cricketing brain is one who knows every single situation of the game, and has answers or tactical theories ready to give for any situation on the field. They are able to fully understand why a player is playing well or poorly and they know what is to happen in an extremely complex match situation.
Moeen also provided context with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru team, where he was the bowling coach and mentor and spent a year working with Nehra in the Indian Premier League from 2018 to 2020. Moeen said Nehra’s brilliance is based on a wealth of evidence and history and he always seems to explain why it has happened, and why it will happen again. Apart from tactical strategies, Moeen also said Nehra was good at management of the team dynamics and how to deal with players, coaches and support staff in the field; his cricket intelligence is truly amazing.
Nehra was a fiery left-handed fast bowler who represented India in all formats with immense success. He took 120 One Day Internationals and 157 wickets and 17 Test matches with 44 scalps and 27 T20 Internationals with 34 wickets. In retirement and in coaching and management, he came to the helm of the Gujarat Titans ahead of the Indian Premier League 2022 season and made history when he led the new team to the championship title in his first season and he is still leading the coaching team very well.
