England add Moeen Ali to Ashes squad as they get player with plenty of experience and ability to alter games with bat and ball; Moeen to enjoy first taste of Bazball in what looks sure to be his last ride in Ashes cricket; watch series live on Sky Sports from June 16
Thursday 8 June 2023 12:58, UK
The Bazball train is hurtling towards The Ashes and Moeen Ali has jumped aboard.
England sent an SOS to Moeen following Jack Leach's back injury and, after some deliberation, the off-spinning all-rounder has opted to end his Test retirement.
It's a move that makes sense for both parties.
England are getting a man who should slot perfectly into the culture captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum have cultivated since taking over last spring.
Moeen looks to take wickets, bats with aggression and freedom, and is a great team man to boot. A player who is quick-scoring and also quick with a one-liner.
He also has the experience of Ashes series that his fellow contenders to replace Leach - leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed and off-spinner Will Jacks seemed his strongest challengers - do not.
He has 195 wickets - the third most by an England spinner, behind only Graeme Swann and Derek Underwood - and over 2,900 runs, including five hundreds, in 64 Tests.
This new England do not put much stock in statistics but Moeen's numbers must have appealed.
So would his ability to turn the ball away from the left-handers, with Australia likely to have four southpaws in their top seven (David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Travis Head and Alex Carey).
For Moeen - who initially called time on his Test career in 2021 - it represents the chance to improve on a less-than-stellar bowling record against Australia, with his 20 wickets in 11 matches against them to date coming at an average of 64.65.
Those numbers are skewed by a dire Ashes series in Australia in 2017-18 in which he claimed five wickets at an eye-watering average of 115, as in the 2015 series in England, which the home side won 3-2, he struck 12 times at a healthier, if not great, average of 45.50.
It also gives Moeen the first opportunity to experience Bazball, the attacking-cricket phenomenon that has propelled England to 11 wins from 13 Tests and entertained all who have watched it.
He was tempted before, telling the BBC last year that he "would love" to play under Stokes and McCullum: "They're very aggressive. Both of them have that character about them. I think I would suit their cricket and I think they feel I would suit them as well."
McCullum and Stokes did feel that, with Moeen approached ahead of last December's Test series in Pakistan. Ali turned down the advances then but has changed his mind now, with his comeback likely to take place at his home ground of Edgbaston on June 16.
With the bat, Moeen will add even more firepower to England's devastating middle order - a five, six, seven, eight of Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow and Moeen could be brutal. Yes, he toiled in Australia with the bat in 2017-18, but in the 2015 Ashes he averaged in the mid-thirties with two half-centuries, which is not too shabby.
That's not to say there are no concerns with Moeen's return.
Sky Sports Cricket expert Nasser Hussain says it is "a bit of a kick in the teeth" for the spinners who have been plugging away in the county game to be overlooked for a man who has not played a red-ball fixture since September 2021 and who has primarily featured as a batter who bowls a bit in white-ball cricket of late.
But he also said England's decision makes sense in that it will give them a bowler who can impart control in the first innings and attack in the second. Eighteen-year-old leg-spinner Ahmed can do the second part. The first bit might have been more of a challenge.
England could have gone with the spinners that played most recently in Pakistan in Ahmed and Jacks. They could have gone with the dependable left-armer Liam Dawson, the most like-for-like replacement for Leach and someone who claimed a six-wicket haul in his previous first-class game, for Hampshire in May.
But instead they have gone for a mix of experience and excitement in Moeen, giving them a player who could change the game with bat and ball and giving that player, who turns 36 during the first Test at Edgbaston, a final ride in Ashes cricket.
Watch The Ashes live on Sky Sports Cricket from Friday June 16. Coverage from Edgbaston begins at 9.30am ahead of the first ball at 11am. You can also follow in-play clip and text commentary across Sky Sports' digital platforms.
