England all-rounder Moeen Ali has announced his retirement from international cricket and says “I’ve done my part”.
Moeen Ali made his international debut in 2014 against West Indies, scored 6678 international runs and picked 366 wickets. He was a part of the England senior men’s cricket team that won the 2019 Cricket World Cup and 2022 T20 World Cup.
Moeen last represented England in their semi-final loss to India at the 2024 T20 World Cup in Guyana.
“I’m 37 years old and didn’t get picked for this month’s Australia series. I’ve played a lot of cricket for England. It’s time for the next generation, which was also explained to me. It felt the time was right. I’ve done my part”, Moeen told Daily Mail in an interview.
As a youngster, Moeen tended towards batting, but in the England jersey, he developed his bowling well enough to become their leading bowler in the Tests.
While playing for the England test cricket team between 2014 and 2023, Moeen picked 204 Test wickets, making him the third-best England spinner in the format, sitting behind Derek Underwood (297) and Graeme Swann (255). Moreover, Moeen is only the 16th person to hit 3,000 runs and take 200 wickets in Tests.
“I’m very proud. When you first play for England, you don’t know how many games you’re going to play. So to play nearly 300… My first few years were all about Test cricket. Once Morgs [Eoin Morgan] took over the one-day stuff, that was more fun. But Test cricket was proper cricket”.
“Even now, I’ve tried to be realistic. I could hold on and try to play for England again, but I know in reality I won’t. Even retiring, I don’t feel it’s because I’m not good enough — I still feel I can play. But I get how things are, and the team needs to evolve into another cycle. It’s about being real to myself.
“People forget the impact you make in games. It might only have been 20 or 30, but it was a crucial 20 or 30. For me, it was about making an impact. I know what I brought to the side, on and off the field. As long as I felt people enjoyed watching me play, whether or not I did well, I was happy with that.”
Moeen also said that he will continue playing franchise cricket, and could later see himself getting involved in coaching. Moeen is currently plying his trade in CPL 2024 with the defending champions, Guyana Amazon Warriors.
“A bit of franchise cricket, because I still love playing. But coaching is something I want to do — I want to be one of the best. I can learn a lot from Baz [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.”
In total in his decade-long career, Moeen played 68 Tests, 138 ODIs, and 92 T20Is and scored 3094, 2355, and 1229 runs respectively. With the ball, the batting allrounder scalped 204, 111, and 51 wickets respectively.
