One of the best calls it a day

October 3, 2021

Only two players -- Derek Underwood (297) and Graeme Swann (255) – took more Test wickets for England than Moeen Ali

One of the best calls it a day

England all-rounder Moeen Ali decided to hang his Test boots last week. But he is keen to continue his career for England in white-ball cricket for 8-10 years and is also expected to continue to play for his county and franchise leagues.Moeen Munir Ali was born on June 18, 1987, in Birmingham. He is of Pakistani descent and belongs to the Mirpuri community. His grandfather migrated to England.

Moeen made his ODI debut against West Indies in February 2014, and scored his first fifty in the third ODI. He got selected for the Test against Sri Lanka at Lord’s in June 2014. After the retirement of off-spinner Graeme Swann, Moeen was selected.

He made an impressive start with the bat by scoring 48 runs in his first Test innings but took only the wicket of Kumar Sangakkara.

During the second Test, Moeen’s patient 108 not out almost saved England – but the last man James Anderson fell off the penultimate ball of the game and England lost the Test.

In his seven-year Test career, he played 64 Tests, scored 2914 runs at an average of 28.94 with five centuries and 14 fifties. His highest Test score was 155 not out against Sri Lanka in 2016.

Moeen took 195 wickets in cricket's longest format with the best bowling innings figure of 6-53 and a match haul of 10-112 with an average of 36.66.

In 2017, Moeen became the fifth-fastest player in terms of matches played to reach 2,000 runs and 100 wickets. He took a hat-trick against South Africa at The Oval in 2017 which sealed the series victory.

His best in Tests came against South Africa at home when he took 25 wickets and scored 261 runs in four Tests. He received the Player-of-the-Series award.

In 2016, Moeen became only the third English player to score four centuries in a calendar year. He is one of only five Englishmen to have taken more than 150 wickets and scored more than 2,500 runs in Test cricket. The others are Sir Ian Botham, Andrew Flintoff, Stuart Broad, and Ben Stokes.

Only two spinners - Derek Underwood (297) and Graeme Swann (255) – have more Test wickets for England than Moeen.

If the fifth Test against India had not been cancelled, Moeen could have become the 15th player in Test history to score 3,000 runs and take 200 wickets.

In the white ball game, he has scored 1877 runs in 112 in ODIs at an average of 25.02.

In T20Is, he has scored 437 runs in 38 games with a strike rate of 136.13.

In ODIs, he has taken 87 wickets averaging 50.85. In the shortest format, he has taken 21 wickets in 38 matches at an average of 32.57. He also led England's Under-19 team to the semi-finals of the 2006 World Cup.

In December 2019, he was drafted by Multan Sultans for Pakistan Super League (PSL) as their Platinum Category pick at the 2020 PSL.

Moeen played county cricket for Warwickshire before moving to Worcestershire after the 2006 season. He enjoyed a successful stint at Warwickshire and won the NBC Dennis Compton Award in 2004 and 2005.

He had the most fantastic championship season in 2013, in which he scored 1,375 runs in 17 first-class games including four hundred and eight half-centuries. He also showed his bowling skills with 31 wickets. With the all-round performance, he received the Professional Cricketers Association's player of the year award.

During the home series against India, Moeen demolished the Indian batting with 19 wickets. In the series, Moeen remained the second-highest wicket-taker for England, but he was not successful with the bat.

Moeen led England in a T20I match against Australia in Southampton on September 8, 2020, becoming the first Asian-origin cricketer to captain England in any format since Nasser Hussain in 2003.

After the Twenty20 World Cup in Oman and the United Arab Emirates in October and November this year, England are set to face Australia in the five-Test Ashes series starting. Without Moeen, England will face a selection problem.

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One of the best calls it a day