As one of the great Tests was building to its barnstorming conclusion in New Zealand, England’s other senior squad was just waking up in Bangladesh. Though it was not being shown at their hotel some players found ways to watch the end of the game, while others relied on messages from friends back home or at the ground. Moeen Ali took a different option: he slept through it all.
“I woke up at 12.30pm, got on the bus to training and someone said: ‘Did you watch the game?’ I’d forgotten to check the score,” he said. “I’d actually woken up for prayer in the morning, we still had Rooty and Stokesy in there and I thought we had a chance, but then I heard about the stuff that happened and watched the highlights on YouTube on the way to the ground.”
Though the game itself profoundly failed to do so, what might keep Moeen up at night is its impact both on the white-ball team, missing a couple of potentially key players who have been otherwise engaged with the Test side, and on those players themselves, denied a chance to gain experience across the formats by a schedule almost as congested as Dhaka’s streets.
“It’s wrong for the younger players, who want to play all forms and as many games as they can,” Moeen said. “One day you will look back on your career – take me, for example, I’ve played over 100 ODIs and 60-odd Tests, and that means I feel like I’ve played a lot for England. That’s something to be really proud of when you finish. But Harry Brook for example could get to 28, 29 and not have played much white-ball cricket. I feel for them, but it is the way it is. Even if you ease up international cricket to help the players, there’ll just be more franchise cricket – somebody will come up with a league and fill that gap. So it’s probably better just staying as it is now.”
Since England won the T20 World Cup in Australia last November Moeen, who retired from Tests in 2021, has played franchise cricket in the Abu Dhabi T10 and the new IT20 league in the United Arab Emirates, played three one-day internationals for England in South Africa and squeezed in a couple of games in the Bangladesh Premier League – both played at the Sher-E-Bangla National Stadium, site of the first two matches of this series.
“I thought playing franchise cricket would be a bit easier in terms of getting a bit more rest, but you’re just on the road all the time,” he said. “I’m 35 and I’m trying to make the most of my cricketing career – I want to play as long as I can and hopefully retire when I literally can’t play any more. That’s my plan.”
No visiting side has won an ODI series in Bangladesh since England visited in 2016, with Moeen one of the veterans of that trip – though memories of his more recent experience with Comilla Victorians will be more useful, yielding insights into many of the national team’s key players.
“It’s so different to anywhere else because of the wickets and the way they bowl and the way they play,” he said. “Even though people think: ‘It’s Bangladesh and we should walk it,’ they’re a very good side. Their spinners bowl low under-cutters that spin and skid on, and when they’re on top of you they’re really on top of you.”
England have lost eight of their past 11 completed ODIs, while on home soil Bangladesh have won 12 of their past 15. No member of the travelling party is underestimating the task facing them over the next six days.
“As players we know how hard it is here, and how much we have to be on our game. It’s going to be a right challenge for us,” Moeen said. “I know we’ve lost a few recently but we feel like we’re in a really good space right now – and we know now is the time to really switch on for the World Cup.”
