Moeen Ali: the captain we could have had?
In the Cricinfo write-up for the 2016 Chester-le-Street test, Sri Lanka’s second in their tour of England that year, Moeen Ali is mentioned twice. Once when Chandimal plonked a straight six down the ground off his bowling, and again when Herath reverse-swept him to bring up a half century. In that match, Moeen had just scored what would prove to be the highest total of his test career, an unbeaten 155.
This is not me accusing Andrew McGlashan of anything* - in the same game Alastair Cook had finally reached his 10,000-run landmark, the 12th man to do so in test history, and Jimmy Anderson had been declared man of the match after a typically hard-fought five-for in the second innings to bring up England’s victory. I’m just saying that 155 not out is usually worth a mention.
You might also say, and I do, that this is symptomatic of the way that England took Moeen Ali for granted throughout his test career. The man that batted in every position from one to nine during his 64 appearances. The man frequently regarded as a back-up spinner, a back-up allrounder, a back-up team man, happy to be left on the bench. Even in the commentary of that 2016 test, Graeme Swann was imploring Moeen to get a move on in the latter stages of his innings. A game that England would go on to win by 9 wickets, just to remind everyone.
When he retired towards the end of last year, Moeen said something that didn’t get quite enough attention at the time.
“Obviously, Stokesy turned out to be an amazing player, but I sometimes feel, maybe, that could have been me, if I was given a bit more of a run.”
Ali was referring to the moment in 2015, when Ben Stokes was given the number six spot that Mo had had since Peter Moores brought him into the side the year before, condemning Mo to a career of dancing up and down the order.
“I felt like I was the guy moving up and down a lot more than the other guys”, he said in September, “I think anybody would be quite unstable”.
Given the years of media coverage focused on Joe Root’s gigantic journey from four, to three, and back to four again, I think we can all agree that Mo might have a point.
By the way, did you know that his test average at four (from an admittedly small sample size of five innings), was 51.20? No, not did I.
Maybe the wise men who decided to cut Ali’s central contract in 2019, after he’d committed the crime of asking for a short spell away from test cricket, didn’t know that either, or maybe they did. It doesn’t really matter, because either way their decision clearly affected the man.
“That did break me a little bit… I didn’t get a contract because I asked for a break… it was just very disappointing.”
And, thankfully, it also wasn’t the route followed when England’s more celebrated all-rounder, Ben Stokes, made the same decision two years later.
All of which is to say, that it’s not a huge surprise that Moeen Ali is no longer in the England test set up. Why would he be, when the Chennai Super Kings recognise his value through a £700,000 deal? This dynamic cricketer, former PCA player of the year, former county cricket MVP award winner, has chosen to focus purely on the white-ball stuff.
And it’s a shame, because if Mo had become a more permanent fixture - his 195 wickets, his seven hour unbeaten 108 bid to save a match, his year of four centuries ending with a 146 against India in Chennai (from number four, just saying), recognised and valued just a little bit more - then maybe he’d still be here, now, and he’d be an obvious answer to England’s captaincy woes.
Need convincing on that front? Ok. Shall we talk about his captaincy of the England Under-19s to the World Cup semi final in 2006, aged 18, with the same team that had just been battered in Bangladesh? Or his widely lauded captaincy of a plucky Worcester Rapids side to two consecutive T20 blast finals in 2018 and 2019, winning the first? Or his captaincy of the unfancied Birmingham Phoenix to the inaugural Hundred final? Or his international captaincy experience with England’s T20 team? Or his elevation to test team Vice Captain in 2021, by a then-Captain who might well have been laying the groundwork for his successor and was clearly surprised when Ali retired?
In fact, Root’s own words in response to Moeen’s decision are worth reflecting on here.
“I think at times he has been under-appreciated, not within the dressing room, but outside of it.”
Well, were Moeen Ali still within that room, the announcement of Root’s own resignation last week could have seemed a lot more like the natural passing of a crown to a safe, proven, inspiring pair of hands. Instead, it now seems like the panic-stricken fumble of a slip catch on a cold April afternoon. And just like that unlucky fielder, I’d argue that English cricket definitely dropped the ball on this one.
*It should be noted that Cricinfo’s England correspondent at the time, George Dobell, wrote this great piece about Moeen when he hit the Durham ton.