He had a career that achieved more than most and still left you wanting more, which is sometimes just fine
Vithushan Ehantharajah08-Sep-2024Loosely, Sunday’s retirement was Moeen Ali’s third in as many years. But this one, at the age of 37, a week after he, as white ball vice-captain, was left out of both ODI and T20I squads, carries a weight of finality.Test retirement at the end of the 2021 summer was seemingly on a whim before he was parachuted into the 2023 Ashes to cover for Jack Leach as the spinner, then Ollie Pope as No. 3, after which he said he was done for good. All while a staple in the limited overs set-up.It is a weight that has been lifted off the story. Because though Moeen will still be traipsing about the franchise circuit, his England career, outright, is done. Now, a decade after this whole ride began, it is time to get off and remember what was.The glorious cover drive, the pull shot, the flight, the drift, the turn. The way he made the game look effortlessly easy, which lent itself to almost widespread infuriation during the periods of underperformance. He was a role model, and not just for the British Muslim community but the wider working classes.Related
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He won the Ashes in 2015 – the last time England held the urn – and has two World Cup winners medals as a vital cog in Eoin Morgan’s machine that achieved ODI and T20 successes in 2019 and 2022, respectively. And it speaks of Moeen’s character that Sunday’s announcement came with a clear message that the time was right for the team to move on from him, not the other way around.Alastair Cook, Moeen’s captain for 37 of his 68 Tests, regards him as the most selfless player he lined up alongside. Stuart Broad, who played with Moeen for all but nine of those caps, simply referred to him as his favourite team-mate.There is another thing about Moeen that does not matter but still counts: he was cool. And not “cool because he has a great beard” or “cool because he laces inside out over point”. But cool in the way cool is meant to be. A disposition rather than an act.It is little things like somehow being a cult hero and yet adored by everyone you have ever played with, despite the fact cricket is the kind of sport where the two do not go hand in hand. Even last summer, when the England team went crazy for bucket hats, they were all in agreement that Moeen – who flipped the brim to fashion it into a trilby – wore it best. Wisely, none of them tried to copy him, appreciating the fact they simply did not have the capacity to pull off the look.Moeen was a role model, not just for the British Muslim community, but the wider working classes•Philip Brown/Getty ImagesIt’s also the big things, like dropping into an Ashes, batting No. 3, and being the primary spinner despite a slit in your finger that you fix by – checks notes – bathing it in honey. Being a soothing comfort to watch when on full flow out in the middle, or having a knack for skewering tension in a dressing room, which is no mean feat.We might as well stick with that 2023 series against Australia, because it really is the perfect microcosm of his career. Ben Stokes dropped him an SOS “Ashes?” text, and he replied initially with “LOL”, before confirming his attendance officially during a meeting with Stokes and managing director Rob Key, which he arrived at armed with a bag of Sam’s Chicken. Duty called and Moeen answered, though not before getting a chicken burger.He averaged 25.71 with the bat, 51.44 with the ball, yet had a strangely profound influence on matters. There were only nine wickets, but that included Travis Head three times, Marnus Labuschagne twice, as well as Mitchell Marsh and Steven Smith. And arguably his biggest contribution with the bat – probably pipping the 54 struck in a 121-run stand with Zak Crawley in the first innings of the fourth Test in Manchester – came while waiting for his turn to bat in the third Test at Headingley.”Harry Brook played a drive and got out for 3 batting at No. 3,” Broad recalled while speaking to Moeen on Sky Sports at lunch on day three at the Kia Oval. “I was sat next to you, and you’re a bit like ‘I’m not sure I like Brooky at three’ and you went straight to Baz [Brendon McCullum] and went, ‘Baz, let me go three – I’ll go three, get Brooky back to where he scores his runs. I don’t care if I snick off, I’ll go and try and blaze the new ball but get me up at three. Let me take the responsibility.'”Brook, who was at first drop in that innings after Pope injured his shoulder at Lord’s, went on to score 75 from No. 5 on the final day as England chased down 251 to save the series and get on the board on their way to a 2-2 series draw. “And you had such a natural selflessness to you,” mused Broad.
“The glorious cover drive, the pull shot, the flight, the drift, the turn. The way he made the game look effortlessly easy, which lent itself to almost widespread infuriation during the periods of underperformance”
Moeen almost shrugged off the thanks. “A lot of the time, whatever the team needs, I’m prepared to do that.”That brief period of Moeen in the time of Bazball carried a hint of sadness as he walked off at The Oval. You wonder how he would have fared had he played the guts of his Test career under McCullum’s stewardship.At the same time, he was very much of his era. And though this is usually the point in a tribute piece where you sneak in the flaws, Moeen’s entire career was punctuated by frustration. He certainly wasn’t clutch enough and there was no legitimate reason why he did not make more of his batting talent. That he only has five Test centuries is ludicrous and, ultimately, a blight on him rather than anyone else – as is the Test average of 28.12.Yet, his 204 wickets put him behind only Derek Underwood and Graeme Swann as England’s most productive spinner. Only 17 other players in the history of Test cricket have scored 3000 runs and taken 200 wickets. And even in an era when England’s white-ball batting stocks are through the roof, he still possesses the team’s fastest T20I half-century at 16 balls.Moeen’s was a career that achieved more than most and still left you wanting more. Sometimes, even in a sport wedded to numbers, leaving people wanting more is just fine.
