Former India Seamer Paras Mhambrey has been appointed as Mumbai Indians bowling coach for the IPL 2025 season. Paras Mhambrey, who was previously an assistant coach with Mumbai Indians, will now work with current bowling coach Lasith Malinga under the team’s new head coach, Mahela Jayawardene.

Paras Mhambrey was part of Team India's World Cup 2024 winning campaign in the West Indies under Head Coach Rahul Dravid. He was also part of the Mumbai Indians' winning campaigns of IPL 2013 and Champions League T20.

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He has experience of coaching in Domestic cricket as he coached India A side. He led Bengal to consecutive Ranji Finals in 2005-06 and 2006-07. He played two Tests and three ODIs for Team India between the period of 1996 and 1998. He played Domestic Cricket for Team Mumbai, scalped 284 wickets in 91 first-class games and 111 wickets in 83 List-A games.

See Also:- Mahela Jayawardene returns to Mumbai Indians coaching

On Sunday, Mumbai Indians announced the return of Former Srilankan Captain Mahela Jayawardene as the head coach for the upcoming season. The team bid adieu to Head Coach Mark Boucher who served them between 2023 to 2024. Mark Boucher failed to take the team into the playoffs last season as they finished last in the points table with just 4 wins out of 14 matches under the leadership of Hardik Pandya.

So, Head Coach Mahela Jayawardene and his coaching staff now need to decide whom they should retain ahead of the Mega Auction as the deadline to submit the retentions is 31 October.

The five-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians (MI) have appointed Mahela Jayawardene as the head coach of the team.

Former Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene was previously the head coach of Mumbai Indians between 2017 and 2022. Under his previous coaching tenure, Mumbai Indians won three IPL trophies.  

Former South African wicketkeeper Mark Boucher was the previous head coach of Mumbai Indians. Boucher played the head coach role for the team for two years (2023 and 2024). While MI finished in the last or 10th place in the last IPL season, they were eliminated from the Qualifier 2 in the IPL 2023. 

In 2022, Jayawardene became the franchise’s global head of performance. Apart from the IPL, the MI franchise is present in UAE’s ILT20 (MI Emirates), South Africa’s SA20 (MI Cape Town), and the USA’s MLC (MI New York). 

Mahela Jayawardene on MI family

In the official statement on his MI head coach return, Jayawardene said, "My journey within the MI family has always been one of evolution. In 2017, the focus was on bringing together a talented group of individuals to play the best cricket ever and we did very well. Now to return, at the same moment in history, where we look ahead at the future and the opportunity to further strengthen the love of MI, build on the vision of the owners, and continue to add to the history of Mumbai Indians, is an exciting challenge I am looking forward to."

Jayawardene is also working with the Hundred team Southern Brave and the Bangladesh Premier League team Khulna Titans. 

Legendary South African umpire Marais Erasmus, who recently retired from international cricket umpiring, reminisced about his encounters with some of the toughest players during his esteemed career. Among them, former captains Ricky Ponting and Mahela Jayawardene stood out as particularly challenging to officiate.

Marais Erasmus speaks about toughest players

Marais Erasmus said,”It’s a challenging job but it’s also a very rewarding job. New Zealand were always very, very respectful. Ricky Ponting and Mahela Jayawardene tried to intimidate us. Sometimes it was subtle and sometimes not subtle. There are moments where you think ‘why am I doing this stuff’ but there’s so many more positive moments and benefits and I’ve never actually seen it as work.”

Ponting, renowned for his leadership and cricketing prowess, guided Australia to ODI World Cup victories in 2003 and 2007, while Jayawardene led Sri Lanka to the 2007 World Cup final. Their combined captaincy experience amounts to an impressive 510 matches, with 301 victories between them. Ponting holds the distinction of being the third-highest run-scorer in international cricket, amassing over 27,000 runs, while Jayawardene ranks fifth with almost 26,000 runs to his name.

“Thank god Jimmy (Anderson) was never captain” 

In addition to Ponting and Jayawardene, Erasmus also cited the formidable English pacers James Anderson and Stuart Broad as formidable adversaries on the field. “Thank god Jimmy (Anderson) was never captain but no, no Jimmy was hard work. You knew that he was not a character that you should, you know, try and sweet talk or whatever. I normally just gave him quite abrupt, short answers,” said Erasmus.

“Because if you got into a debate with him it was going to be never-ending, especially when you spoke to Jimmy about the running on the wicket. He would argue it. I just said ‘you’re on the danger zone, try and get off. If you don’t I will give you a warning. It is not going to be a debate.’ Stuart Broad was challenging as well sometimes but he and Jimmy are fiery fast bowlers and that’s the way it should be,” he added.

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With a staggering tally of over 1,300 wickets between them, Anderson and Broad constitute the most successful bowling pair in Test cricket history. Despite Broad’s recent retirement with 604 Test scalps to his name, Anderson continues to dominate the longest format of the game. His recent achievement of surpassing the milestone of 700 Test wickets solidifies his status as one of the premier bowlers in cricket history, trailing only behind spin legends Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan.