"MS Dhoni is special" - Moeen Ali hails India great's leadership quality

England’s premier all-rounder Moeen Ali stated that MS Dhoni is a special captain who keeps his players guessing about his exceptional strategic thinking. The Birmingham-born cricketer spoke in-depth about what it’s like to play under Dhoni while speaking in an interview with ESPNcricinfo. Ali was in Bangladesh for the country’s franchise T20 League (BPL) at the time of the interview.

Moeen Ali was asked to shed light on a number of topics like his return to Test cricket last year during the Ashes as well as England’s performance in the 5-match Test series in India. One of the topics of discussion was how he felt when playing under the captaincy of 2011 World Cup-winning captain MS Dhoni.

Moeen Ali calls MS Dhoni’s captaincy “exciting”

The 36-year-old started off his response by calling MSD a special player as well as a special captain. Moeen stated that he has not seen many personalities like Dhoni whose strategic thinking always keeps players guessing about their respective roles. The all-rounder also claimed that whenever he plays under Dhoni’s captaincy in CSK, they have a proper chance of winning regardless of the strength of the team.

Moeen Ali was bought by the CSK franchise for 7 crores during the auction for IPL 2021. He played a major role behind CSK’s title win that year with 357 runs and 6 wickets from 15 matches. He was retained by the Stephen Fleming-led management for 8 crores ahead of the 2022 mega auction. Last year, Ali scored 124 runs and racked up 9 wickets from the same amount of matches as the 2021 season as Chennai went level with Mumbai Indians in terms of most IPL trophies.

Ali’s aim is to only win trophies

In continuation to his remarks on MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali stated that he wants to win as many trophies as he can in the remaining years of his career. The left-hand batter and right-arm off-spinner claimed that at the end of his career, he will be judged by the amount of trophies he has won and not the averages or strike rates.