Moeen Ali left the World Over-50 Championship with a generally honest admission that England should turn to the next generation. Although the 36–year-old is heading for the equivalent of 20 next month – a tournament where he could manage the team at some point – there is no idea of an international retirement.
In a speech in India last November, Moeen said that the players did not see that “the writing was on the wall” and that he would “just start over”. Having spent some time playing Test cricket after his last heroic Ashes days last summer and currently on a one-year contract, the question arose as to whether the next month in the Caribbean will be his last dance.
“If I’m playing well, I want to keep going,” Moeen said ahead of England’s second T20 against the sellout Pakistan at Edgbaston on Saturday. “It could be the World Cup [and it’s over] if I’m not playing so well or if I decide, ‘OK, now’s the time.”But if I’m playing really well, it’s for the sake of my body, then I want to keep playing as long as possible.”
This relaxed attitude is one of the reasons why Moeen is the vice-captain of the team, although a short-term promotion to the leadership with Jos Buttler’s third child is planned at the starting of the tournament. The schedules here are inherently hard to follow, but after Moeen stepped up the previous occasions of 13, it’s “pretty cool”, but it’s playing out. “I hope the baby comes at the right time if Jos doesn’t miss too many games,” he added.
Buttler’s decision to continue leading the T20 team behind the stumps also makes Moeen’s role on the pitch – communicating with the bowlers–important. This could be doubly true, considering that the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and the USA will be the first Global tournament in which match officials use a “strike clock”.
For this England-Pakistan series, the big screens on the pitch display a 60-second countdown in the middle of overs, which is triggered when the ball is dead on the sixth delivery. The team on the field of play must be ready to throw the first ball of the next one before the time runs out, and if not, a third blow will result in a five-point penalty after two cautions.
“It’s going to be strict and we can’t take these things lightly,” Moeen said. “There’s a lot of confidence in the group and I think bowlers like to have me halfway to talk to them most of the time, so I hope it can work out. [I can] move players and not worry about Jos saying yes or no; he trusts me in that sense.”
This is one of the few roles that Moeen plays on the side, acting as a utility player with the bat–both his left-handedness and his buttering against the spin can make him float up and down in the order-and an option with the ball on the spinning lanes. His statistics were probably sacrificed here, although this flexibility is a source of “pride” for Moeen.
