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MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Ben Stokes: Moeen Ali Breaks Down Their Captaincy Styles
Follow UsMoeen Ali has played a fair amount of cricket under all three players
Ben Stokes’ captaincy has been the talk of the town during the England-India Test series. The all-rounder has earned plaudits for leading from the front. Virat Kohli in Tests and MS Dhoni in limited-overs cricket have been one of the finest captains of this era as well.
Former England all-rounder, Moeen Ali, has had the privilege of playing under all of them. In a recent interview, he even dissected the captaincy of the three players.
“All of them are very clear about how they want to proceed — whether it’s being spin-heavy, batting-heavy, or deciding the bowling combination,” Moeen said in an interview with Sportstar.
"Take Virat, for example: he built a formidable attack with [Mohammed] Shami, [Jasprit] Bumrah, and [Mohammed] Siraj, supported by [Ravichandran] Ashwin and [Ravindra] Jadeja in Test cricket. He was a brilliant captain who could succeed in all conditions,” said the Englishman, who played 19 T20s under Kohli for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).
"Dhoni, on the other hand, didn’t always have the best fast bowlers but maximised the potential of his medium-pacers and spinners. He even managed to get the best out of average players, which is remarkable,” added Moeen, who was instrumental in CSK winning two titles under MS Dhoni in the 2021 and 2023 IPL seasons.
Moeen, who was called back from retirement for the Ashes 2023 by the Stokes-led England team and who won the 2019 World Cup under Eoin Morgan, rated the English captains as people who knew exactly what they wanted.
“It’s the same with Eoin Morgan and Stokes. They know exactly what they want, back their players, and stick to their vision, adapting as needed. In the process, they’ve grown as both players and captains,” he said.
Moeen, having retired from international cricket, is more than active in franchise and T20 cricket. He will soon be playing for Warwickshire in the T20 Blast 2025 quarterfinals as captain-coach and will then fly to the West Indies for the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2025.