England allrounder Moeen Ali opens up on his Test return and says It is a free hit for him and he doesn’t look at it like a Test career.
Moeen Ali on his Test Return
ECB has named off-spinner Moeen Ali as the replacement for Jack Leach in Ashes 2023 Squad for the first 2 Tests. Moeen Ali retired from Test cricket in September 2021 and has not played first-class cricket since
The Ashes 2023 is scheduled to play between June 16 to July 31 in five different venues across England. The five venues will be Edgbaston, Lord’s, Headingley, Old Trafford and The Oval. We have explained the Men’s Ashes 2023 Venues with Stats for the fans to have an overview of the runs scored in different venues.
Moeen Ali quit the international red-ball game almost two years ago but has agreed to return for the Australia series after fellow spin bowler Leach was ruled out with a stress fracture of the lower back.
“I don’t look at it like a Test career,” Moeen said. “It is a free hit. I’m not playing for my spot. There’s no pressure, really. There is pressure of the occasion and the game, but I spoke to Baz (Brendon McCullum) and he said he’s not bothered about how I perform, which is quite nice. As an individual, I want to do well and contribute to winning games. All the things I ever wanted to do in Test cricket I’m going to try to do in these games. It could be dangerous, it could be not so dangerous.”
Moeen believes that England’s new approach to Tests might suit him as it provides him with more license with the bat.
“Yeah, I spoke to Stokesy (Ben Stokes) about how he talked to batters and he just said ‘it would be perfect for you and the way you play’. There’s no question marks over any shots you play, that gives me licence to play a few more rash shots I guess,” Moeen admitted.
“Even with the ball he’s more on the aggressive side, I know I’d go for runs but he knows there’s also some wicket taking deliveries in between, which is all he cares about really.”
Last year, Moeen turned down a chance to come back to red-ball cricket when it was rumoured he might play in Pakistan.
“At that time I hadn’t had the practice under my belt and if I had gone to Pakistan I wouldn’t have been home for the full six months,” he noted. “I wanted to go home and spend some time there because it was a long winter. I’d been in Pakistan with the T20s and fell sick there twice. I didn’t enjoy that.”
Remaining coy over his immediate Test future post the Ashes, Moeen also brushed aside suggestions that he could be under-prepared in terms of his bowling.
“If I didn’t think I could get through overs, probably would have said no,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been bowling a lot in practice and over in India I bowled quite a bit. I think I’ll be fine. It will be fielding that will be the hardest thing, being out there for the whole day. Again, you get used to it after a day and it will be fine.
“During the IPL, most of the time when you bowl it’s more than four overs. I bowl quite a bit in practice. I think that’s one of the reasons why Stokesy did give me a call because I was working on trying to be as tight as I can.”
England squad for first two Ashes Tests
Ben Stokes (captain), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.
