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

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.

Click here to read article