Ricky Ponting kicked aside as Tom Moody names his favorite IPL 2025 coach

Former Australian cricketer Tom Moody has made some interesting choices about the best coaches in IPL 2025. When asked to pick the top coach for this season, Tom Moody has picked Mahela Jayawardene over big names like Ricky Ponting and Ashish Nehra.

The former Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) head coach believes that the Sri Lankan legend and Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene is doing the best job right now. Notably, the Mumbai Indians have already qualified for the IPL 2025 playoffs.

Tom Moody hails Mahela Jayawardene, but Ashish Nehra wins his heart

The Hardik Pandya-led franchise had a poor start to this season, but they made a stunning comeback and qualified for the playoffs. They are now set to compete in the Eliminator after losing their crucial game to Punjab Kings by seven wickets in Jaipur on May 26.

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Meanwhile, in a rapid-fire round on ESPNCricinfo, Moody stuck with Jayawardene over Daniel Vettori and Chandrakant Pandit, given the MI coach’s tactical edge this season. He said, “Well, I'm going to pick this purely down as the 2025 coach, not historically. So, Mahela Jayawardene.”

But when Andy Flower’s name came up, Moody picked the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) head coach over Mahela, Rahul Dravid (Rajasthan Royals head coach), and Hemang Badani (Delhi Capitals head coach). Notably, RCB also made it to the IPL playoffs for the second successive season.

Tom Moody picks Ashish Nehra as his favorite IPL 2025 coach

The biggest surprise came when the former Australian cricketer named his favorite coach of this season, and he is none other than Gujarat Titans head coach Ashish Nehra. Moody has surprisingly picked the former Indian pacer Nehra over Andy Flower, Rahul Dravid, Lucknow Super Giants head coach Justin Langer, and even Punjab Kings head coach Ricky Ponting.

Moody feels Nehra has done a great job recently and is one of the best coaches in the IPL in recent times. Last season, Gujarat Titans had a tough season under their new captain, Shubman Gill, but they made a remarkable turnaround this season and qualified for the IPL 2025 playoffs.

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They were the first team to qualify for the playoffs, and under Nehra’s coaching, the GT won the title in their debut season in 2022, and then they finished as the runners-up in the 2023 season, and now they are aiming for their second title under Gill’s captaincy.

Ashish Nehra impressed Tom Moody with his coaching style

Praising Nehra’s coaching, Tom Moody said, “I'm going to go with Ashish Nehra, not only for this season but for the last few seasons.”

Best coach of IPL 2025? 👀 pic.twitter.com/gt0W1oiLnm

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) May 27, 2025

On the other hand, under Ricky Ponting, PBKS has qualified for Qualifier 1 for the first time since 2014. They are now one of the strongest contenders to lift the trophy this season. On the other hand, Rajasthan Royals, Chennai Super Kings, and Lucknow Super Giants have poor campaigns.

However, Delhi Capitals had a great start under the new captain Axar Patel, but they lost the momentum in the crucial stage of the tournament and lost the chance to make it to the playoffs. Now, RCB, MI, PBKS, and GT are in the race to become the IPL 2025 champions.