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Moeen Ali hailed England’s most successful ODI captain Eoin Morgan as he announced his retirement from international cricket on June 28. Ali not only credited Morgan for the huge turnaround in England’s white-ball cricket but compared him to former Indian skipper MS Dhoni, under whom he has played at Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022.
“I have played under him and MS Dhoni. There is not much difference between in terms of characteristics, very calm, very loyal to their players etc,” the all-rounder told Sports Today in an exclusive interview.
England have recently made huge changes in their approach to Test cricket as well. Ali has credited Morgan for the new brand of cricket which helped Ben Stokes-led England whitewash New Zealand in three-Test series at home.
“He has almost taken England from dark days to really good days in white-ball cricket. We were horrendous in white-ball cricket before that. He changed the mindset of the players and actually the way England are playing now in Test cricket is I believe is because of him. He showed that if you change your mindset and believe in it, you can play fearless cricket. He is a massive icon in the game for us now. He is the greatest ever white-ball captain we have ever had,” the 35-year-old said.
Ali feels that Morgan has been an underrated batter despite his record for England. Morgan retires as England’s highest run-scorer in ODI format.
“He is a brilliant player. People actually forget his runs. He is leading run-scorer in white-ball cricket for England in both formats. He is a brilliant person more than anything,” he added.
Ali talked about another CSK captain as well. He feels that despite CSK’s poor run in IPL 2022 under new captain Ravindra Jadeja, the Indian all-rounder can still prove himself as a leader.
“Look, he is fine. He is obviously inexperience in terms of captaincy and CSK was a tough one this year because we were not playing well as a team. But, he has got a good brain. He could be a potential good leader in future,” Ali defended his CSK teammate Jadeja who stepped down from captaincy mid-season and handed it back to Dhoni.
