As England’s white-ball teams were letting go of the two World Cups they held at the start of last winter, Moeen Ali was the one guy acknowledging the need to start again. It was time for the next generation to step up, the vice-captain said with typical self-effacing honesty, and now, aged 37, he has called time on his own international career.
After being replaced for the upcoming series against Australia by some of the rookies he had called for, and in the final weeks of his central contract, this news was widely expected. Confirmation arriving while he was watching an Oval Test unfold – the ground where he delivered a match-winning final day performance in Test cricket during last summer’s Ashes, plus the scene of that hat-trick in 2017 – made it pretty fitting too.
Not that there is too much of a hierarchy for a cricketer who served his country across all formats for 10 years, took supporters on a rollercoaster ride, and helped secure two global trophies. It’s just that Test cricket was No 1 and where a generation got to watch the full Moeen Ali repertoire on the sports’s broadest canvas: the succulent drives and the gyroscopic off breaks that dipped and gripped, all with the glorious uncertainty of never knowing whether it would be his day or not.
When everything clicked there there were few more beguiling sights, everything loose and fluid and pure timing. But it was still built on hard work and passion ever since his father, Munir, built a concrete net in the garden of his terraced house in Sparkhill, Birmingham and with the help of his twin brother, Shabir, trained up three first-class professionals from toddler age. Moeen was the product of relentless graft – the 10,000 hours theory manifest – he just never compromised on the aesthetics while doing it.
The upshot was an international career that was as much about moments as the numbers. Although seen through the prism of the all-rounder’s lot, they still stack up. Moeen is one of just 15 men in history to score over 3,000 Test runs and take over 200 Test wickets, claiming those dual milestones last summer when he answered a Test SOS from Ben Stokes with an “LOL” and came out of Test retirement for one last job. Five Test centuries were too low for a player of his talent but as many as Andrew Flintoff, for example.
While Moeen set out as a batter – 2016, when he scored four Test centuries, was his most settled period in an otherwise yo-yo career – he ended up as just the third Englan spinner after Derek Underwood and Graeme Swann to climb north of 200 Test wickets with 204. A fourth innings record with the ball of 63 wickets at an average of 23 and a strike rate of 40 also ranks alongside the greats. Frontline spinner was never the plan here – the title took a while to feel comfortable – but he could still outfox the best in the world.
There have of course been times that the returns have been maddening, his form volatile along the way. Spectators in Australia, for example, never saw the best on their shores, with a poor 2017/18 Ashes, and Nathan Lyon’s hex, their lasting impression. The 2019 World Cup was also a frustrating time after such a central role in the buildup, a combination of low form and seaming surfaces seeing him watch the final from the dugout. The medal was still well-earned, however, and three years later, as Jos Buttler’s vice-captain in the T20 World Cup, a second came his way.
In contrast to his form, Moeen has been nothing but consistent off the field while wearing a fair few hats, along the way be it senior player, vice-captain, consigliere or confidante. He has been an older brother to many in the dressing room – not least Adil Rashid, another pillar of Eoin Morgan’s white-ball generation – and also the ice-breaker when a wise-crack was very much needed.
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Guided by his Muslim faith, his Kashmiri roots, and from a working-class, inner-city background, Moeen has also been held up as the best of multicultural Britain in his career and accepted an OBE last year. But he has always worn flag-bearer status lightly and with class. “When I take the field for my country, I know there are a lot of people I am representing,” he told the Guardian in 2019. “It’s not something I always dwell on or like all the time but I know where I stand with it all.”
The good news is that, as well as ploughing on in domestic leagues (and being the type of character who will be turning out at club level until he can no longer walk), Moeen has set his sights on coaching. “I want to be one of the best,” he told Nasser Hussain in the newspaper interview confirming the news. “I can learn a lot from Baz [the England head coach, Brendon McCullum]. I hope people remember me as a free spirit. I played some nice shots and some bad shots, but hopefully people enjoyed watching me.”
Even with more to still give back to the game, it feels like a case of mission accomplished.