Coaches serve as the backbone of any team or franchise. In this ongoing IPL season, many have fared exceptionally well, whilst some, including the likes of Stephen Fleming from CSK, have come under the scanner for their team's disappointing performance. In a recent interview with ESPNcricinfo, former Australian legend Tom Moody was asked to name the best coach of the IPL 2025 season.

Moody was given two options at a time to select from. The names of numerous legendary figures came up during the discussion featuring the likes of Fleming, Flower, Jayawardene, Vettori, and Langer to name a few. He named his favorite picks based on their ongoing performance in this current season and not their historical performance. 

Moody names his favorite pick

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

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) May 27, 2025

Moody's answers certainly took a few users by surprise. First up, he was asked to make a selection between Fleming and Jayawardene. The former SRH legend picked Jayawardene's side on this one. Next up, he was asked to pick either NZ great Vettori or Jayawardene. Much to everyone's surprise, his preference remained the same as he chose Jayawardene over his Trans-Tasman rival. 

However, as the conversation progressed, he stumbled upon a minor roadblock when he was asked to make a tough choice between Zimbabwe legend Andy Flower and Jayawardene. He took a momentary pause before preferring Flower over the Lankan legend. Flower, then, seemed to be his consistent preference over Badani and Dravid. But that changed once again when Ashish Nehra from GT came into the picture. Moody recognized Nehra's instrumental contribution to the franchise not only in this season but also the prior seasons. 

And as fate would have it, Nehra emerged as Moody's favorite pick as he choose him over his Aussie counterparts like Langer and Ponting. This remarkable revelation left fans in awe since most of them, many of whom are from India, expected Moody to prefer his former teammates over Ashish Nehra. 

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While Punjab Kings (PBKS) are struggling for a long time, their former coach is disappointed with the team and opened up his retention theory for the team.

We are getting closer to knowing the details of the retention of each team before the IPL 2025 mega auction. The deadline is 5 PM on October 31. 

Each team can retain a maximum of six players, including a maximum of five capped players (Indian or foreigner) and a maximum of two uncapped players. The lesser number of retentions means that the team can use the remaining number for the Right-to-Match (RTM) option. 

In their IPL journey, Punjab Kings, formerly known as Kings XI Punjab, reached the next stage only twice. While they were semifinalists at the inaugural IPL (2008), they were runners-up in the IPL 2014.

In the last 10 years, PBKS failed to reach the playoffs. Since the 10-team competition from IPL 2022, PBKS finished in the sixth, eighth, and ninth places, respectively. 

For Punjab Kings, I don't think I would retain any players: Tom Moody

Tom Moody, under whom SunRisers Hyderabad won their first IPL title in 2016, was the head coach for Punjab Kings in their first three seasons. He is disappointed with the present PBKS players, especially the capped players. 

Moody feels that he wouldn’t retain the capped PBKS players before the mega auction. However, he would use the RTM for Arshdeep Singh, Sam Curran, and Kagiso Rabada, along with Jitesh Sharma.

Moody told Star Sports, “For Punjab Kings, I don't think I would retain any players, certainly not capped players, but I’d be looking to use the right-to-match option for players like Arshdeep Singh, Sam Curran, and Rabada. Jitesh Sharma is another one I’d consider using the right-to-match for in the auction.” 

While Harshal Patel won the Purple Cap in the last season with 24 wickets for Punjab Kings, Arshdeep, Curran, and Rabada took 19, 16, and 11 wickets, respectively. 

Tom Moody on uncapped players

Talking about the uncapped players, Moody would retain players like Shashank Singh and Harpreet Brar.

Moody added, “When it comes to uncapped players, there are a couple of good players I’d like to secure before the auction: Shashank Singh, who is a solid middle-order power hitter and had a great season last year, and Harpreet Brar, the left-arm spinner.” 

Shashank Singh was the leading run-scorer for PBKS in the IPL 2024 with 354 runs in 14 games with an average of 44.25 and a strike rate of 164.65, including two half-centuries. Meanwhile, Brar took seven wickets in the last season.