Moeen Ali picks top five Indian cricketers of all time, keeps MS Dhoni on top

England all-rounder Moeen Ali has picked his top five Indian cricketers of all time. The 36-year-old kept his Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni on top followed by India’s batting star Virat Kohli. Notably, Dhoni is the second most successful captain in limited-overs cricket having led India to three ICC trophy triumphs. On the other hand, Kohli is the greatest modern day batter across formats having the second most number of centuries (80) in international cricket.

“For me No. 1 is Dhoni. He was a great player but people forget how good he was. It is everything he won as a captain for India. “Virat (Kohli) No.2 because he is great and one of the best players,” said Moeen in a recent interview with Samp Group.

On number three, Ali picked the most prolific batter in the history of international cricket, the legendary Sachin Tendulkar. Touted as one of the greatest batters to ever play the sport, Tendulkar has 100 centuries to his name in international cricket.

“It pains me to say this but he (Sachin) is No.3 because of him being Sachin and I think he started the (art) of proper batting. There was Sunil Gavaskar as well but he was before my era so I didn’t see a lot of him. But Sachin was just different level,” added Moeen.

On the fourth spot, the off-spinner kept the destructive opener Virender Sehwag who’s known for giving sleepless nights to many bowlers of his era. The opening batter had a strike rate of 82.23 in Tests and is among the four players to score two triple hundreds in Tests.

“My favourite batter is Virender Sehwag because he was something different. The way he batted in Test matches, ODIs and T20s, he scored massive and he absolutely destroyed bowlers,” he further said.

People have compared me to Yuvraj Singh: Moeen Ali

At number five, the Birmingham-born cricketer kept the legendary India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh who helped the Men in Blue end their 28-year-long drought of ODI World Cup in 2011 edition with his stellar performances with both bat and ball. The southpaw was awarded the Prestigious ‘Player of the Tournament’ for scoring 362 runs and picking 15 wickets in the tournament.

“The guy I looked up to as a batter…in terms of…of course I would try to copy up to a certain extent and people have compared me to him a little bit so it’s Yuvraj Singh. The bat swing, the way he played and his bat swing was amazing to watch. When in form, he was the best player to watch,” he added.