Moeen Ali says Ben Stokes is the only captain who could have coaxed him out of Test retirement as he prepares for a potential comeback in this week’s Ashes series opener against Australia.
Moeen is part of an England Test squad for the first time since retiring from the format at the end of the 2021 home summer, the spinner having answered an SOS from Stokes and Brendon McCullum after Jack Leach suffered a stress fracture of the back earlier this month.
With Stokes having picked at least one spinner in every game of his captaincy, the 35-year-old looks likely to play in the First Test, which starts on Friday at his home ground of Edgbaston.
Moeen had previously insisted he was “done” with Test cricket, turning down the chance to return to the fold as recently as the tour of Pakistan last December, but says a home series of this magnitude, as well as Stokes’ leadership, proved too great a lure to resist this time around.
“Stokesy messaged me with a question mark…. ‘Ashes?’,” Moeen explained in a press conference at Edgbaston on Tuesday. “I hadn’t heard the news on Leachy at the time so I just said ‘LOL’, thinking he’s taking the Mick. Then the news came through and I had a chat with him. That was it.
“Just the fact that it’s the Ashes and it’s such a big series and the exciting cricket the guys have been playing. It’s a kind of era I’d have loved when I was playing [before]. It’s the Ashes, to be part of it would be amazing.
“[Last winter] I hadn’t had the practice under my belt and if I had gone to Pakistan I wouldn’t have been home for six months. I wanted to go home and spend some time there because it was a long winter. I’d been in Pakistan with the T20s and fell sick there twice. I didn’t enjoy that.”
Asked whether any skipper other than Stokes could have persuaded him to return, Moeen added: “Probably not, no.”
Moeen has only a modest record against Australia, averaging 25 with the bat and 65 with the ball. His record as a bowler is significantly better in home conditions, but having not played a first-class game in almost two years, the all-rounder is under no illusions about the aggressive treatment he can expect from Australia’s batters.
“100 per cent [they will target me],” he said. “If I was them I’d do the same. Any spinner that came in would have been attacked. I’m not expecting them to defend to me and things like that.
“I’m expecting them to come after me, which could be dangerous because Stokesy likes having the fielders up. I could go for a lot of runs.”
England turned to Moeen ahead of the likes of Will Jacks and Rehan Ahmed in their hour of need, despite that pair having made impressive debuts in Pakistan over the winter.
The decision has been viewed in some quarters as a damning indictment of the lack of spin depth in county cricket and represents a significant gamble from England’s leadership given Moeen’s lack of match practice in the format. He, however, believes the circumstances around his return make it something of a “free hit”.
“I don’t look at it like a Test career,” he added. “I’m not playing for my spot. There’s no pressure, really. There is pressure of the occasion and the game, but I spoke to Baz and he said he’s not bothered about how I perform, which is quite nice.
“As an individual, I want to do well and contribute to winning games. All the things I ever wanted to do in Test cricket I’m going to try to do in these games. It could be dangerous, it could be not so dangerous. We’ll see.”
