Moeen Ali
Moeen Munir Ali is an English cricketer, who was formerly vice-captain of England in limited overs cricket. He played for England cricket team between 2014 and 2024. In domestic cricket he represents Yorkshire, having previously played for Worcestershire and Warwickshire. He has also played in multiple Twenty20 leagues.
Ali made his debuts in all three formats in 2014. He was part of the England teams that won the 2019 Cricket World Cup and 2022 T20 World Cup.
On 7 June 2023, Ali announced he was coming out of retirement for England Test team following an injury to first choice spinner Jack Leach, just ahead of the 2023 Ashes Series. He fully retired from Test cricket at the end of the Ashes series. He finally announced his international retirement on 8 September 2024.
Early life
Ali was born in Sparkhill, Birmingham. He is of Kashmiri and English descent; his grandfather migrated to England from Mirpur, Kashmir, while his grandmother, Betty Cox, was a white Briton. He can understand Urdu and Punjabi. He became known fondly as "the beard that's feared" while playing for Worcestershire. Ali's father worked as a taxi driver, and as a psychiatric nurse. He grew up on the same street as fellow cricketers Kabir Ali, Naqash Tahir, and Rawait Khan. His brothers Kadeer and Omar are also cricketers. Ali is a keen football fan and a lifelong supporter of Liverpool F.C.Career
Warwickshire
Ali signed for Warwickshire aged just 15, hitting a half-century for the county's Second XI a few days before his 16th birthday. After more games at this level in 2004, and a first outing for England Under-19s against their Bangladeshi counterparts he spent the succeeding winter playing for the Under-19s on their tour of India.2005 saw Ali make his first-class debut, against Cambridge University in May. He impressed with the bat, making 57 not out in his only innings, and sent down two overs for 15 runs. Playing that summer against Sri Lankan Under-19s, he starred in the final "Test" by making 52 not out and 100 not out and claiming seven wickets. He was then selected for the 2006 Under-19 Cricket World Cup, which was held in Sri Lanka, and was immediately promoted to captain by coach Andy Pick. He made three half-centuries in the tournament, and took seven wickets.
Ali received additional opportunities for his county in 2006, playing his first List A games. The first of these came against Derbyshire, where he dismissed Steffan Jones to claim his maiden first-team wicket. He also took his first wickets in first-class cricket, and his first three victims were all Test players: Stuart Law, Dominic Cork and Dave Mohammed. With the bat he scored 68 on his County Championship debut against Nottinghamshire, then equalled that score against Durham.
Ali's opportunities were somewhat limited, however, and Alex Loudon took his place in the side. In July 2006, with the expiry of his Warwickshire contract only months away, Ali brushed off rumours of a move to Worcestershire, saying "I don't know anything about it", but in September it was announced that Ali would indeed be leaving to join that county. The player himself said that he had been impressed by Worcestershire and felt it gave him the best prospects of furthering his career.
Worcestershire
He made his debut for Worcestershire in their ten-wicket win over Loughborough UCCE on 25 April 2007.Ali's highest first-class score of 250, scored against Glamorgan at New Road, featured a partnership of 219 with Matt Pardoe.
At the end of the 2010 season Worcestershire secured promotion to the first division of the County Championship. After he was overlooked by the England Lions and England Performance Programme at the end of the 2010 English season, Moeen opted to play club cricket in Bangladesh at the suggestion of Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan. Shakib played for Worcestershire as their overseas player in 2010 and the link with the club led to Moeen representing Mohammedan Sporting Club in the Ispahani Premier Division.
2011 season
During the 2011 season, Moeen spent three weeks as Worcestershire's acting captain while the usual club captain, Daryl Mitchell, was injured. Though he had captained England Under-19s, it was the first time he filled the role for his county. As he was inexperienced, Moeen approached senior players Vikram Solanki and Ben Scott for advice.Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal was Worcestershire's overseas player for a short time in 2011 and while at the club he encouraged Moeen to try bowling the doosra. Moeen had to wait until July before registering his first century of the season, and his first since September the previous year. His innings of 158 runs from 244 balls against Somerset was in vain as Worcestershire succumbed to an innings defeat. The following month Moeen twice scored a century in the Clydesdale Bank 40 only for Worcestershire to lose, against Sussex and the Netherlands. In the first match against Sussex he passed his previous best score of 136 in List A cricket, scoring 158 runs from 92 balls. In Worcestershire's first season back in the first division, Moeen scored 930 runs in the County Championship, making him the club's second-highest run scorer in the competition behind Solanki. Moeen average 33.21 runs per innings and scored a single century. On the back of his performances for Worcestershire, Moeen was included in the 13-man England Development squad which trained in late 2011.
2012 season
In February 2012, before the start of the English season, Worcestershire's director of cricket Steve Rhodes commented that Ali's doosra was "not too difficult to pick at the moment but he's learning a few tricks and he's got other things up his sleeve. It's a work in progress".2013 season
After the departure of former England international Vikram Solanki at the end of the 2012 season Ali was handed a new 5-year contract. After performing well, including five consecutive 50s, Ali was called up to the England Lions where he scored 61 runs against Australia with many calling for him to be selected for the full side.Moeen averaged 62 in Division 2, totalling 1375 runs altogether – the highest of any batsmen in first-class cricket and finished with 4 centuries and 8 fifties as well as 28 wickets. He was awarded county cricket's MVP award beating Samit Patel on the final day of the season and was also named PCA player of the year. Ali was also called up to the England development squad ahead of their Australian Ashes tour.
T20 Blast 2018 & 2019
Moeen skippered the Rapids to Vitality Blast glory in 2018 as they won the competition for the first time on 15 September 2018. The Rapids beat Lancashire Lightning in the semi-final and then went on to meet the Sussex Sharks in the final where the Worcestershire boys came out on top as they won by 5 wickets to lift their first T20 Blast Trophy.In 2019 Moeen was captain of a Worcester side who almost went all the way to retain their T20 blast trophy but lost to a last ball defeat to the Essex Eagles.
On their road to finals day, Moeen enjoyed a great campaign himself notably scoring 85 not out vs Birmingham Bears in the group stage in a 9 wicket victory. The Rapids went on to meet the 2018 runners up, Sussex Sharks, in the quarter finals as the Rapids ran out winners, with Moeen showing his international class as he dismantled the Sharks attack scoring a blistering 121 Not out as Worcestershire secured their spot at finals day 2019.
On finals day, Moeen and his side produced one of the best come backs finals day has seen by defending 147 from an impossible position against the Nottinghamshire Outlaws. The Outlaws need 11 off 12 balls but it didn't get off to a good start for the Trent Bridge side as 3 wickets fell in the penultimate over. Notts required 2 off the last ball in a tense semi-final and Ben Duckett missed the final ball off the game which meant the Rapids ran out the winners by 1 run in a memorable game as they secured their place in the final where they would meet the Essex Eagles.
Worcestershire seemed to be in control having the Eagles 82-5 and the Rapids looked like they would be the first side to defend the Vitality Blast Trophy. However the Eagles would successfully chase down 12 off the final over to win their maiden T20 Blast Trophy.
International career
2014
Ali was included in the English Squad for the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh. Before the tournament, the squad played the West Indies in a limited overs series, and Ali made his ODI debut against the West Indies on 28 February 2014. He scored 44 runs before being dismissed and took his maiden ODI wicket. In the second match he made ten runs and took figures of 1–11. Ali was again impressive in the third match, making his first half century in a score of 55. He ended up scoring 109 runs and picking up 3 wickets in the three match series. He made his T20 debut in the second match of the T20 series, although he scored just 3 runs and did not bowl.Ali was a part of England's 2014 World T20 squad. He managed 49 runs in 4 matches and ending up wicketless.
Ali was named in the England Test squad for their series against Sri Lanka, before making his debut in the first Test. Ali made a score of 48 in the initial innings but only made 4 in the second. However, in the second Test of the series he made his maiden century in the second innings having started the final day with England on 57 for 5. England lost the match when Jimmy Anderson was caught off the penultimate ball of the match having survived 55 balls.
In the first Test against India, Ali took four wickets in the match, as well as scoring 14 with the bat. In the second match he made scores of 32 and 39, but could not prevent England from losing to go 1–0 down in the series. In the third test against India at the Ageas Bowl, he took his first five wicket haul in test cricket, finishing with 6–67 in India's second innings. He followed this up by taking figures of 4–39 in the fourth test, taking the prized wicket of MS Dhoni. This helped England win the game and take a 2–1 series lead. Ali only played a small part in the final match of the series, making 14 with the bat as England steamrolled India to win the series 3–1. Ali did not play in the first three ODIs against India. However, he was selected for the fourth match of the series and hit a quick fire 67. However, this was not enough to prevent a nine wicket defeat for England. In the final match of the series Ali took 2–34 to help England win their first match of the series.
In the first ODI of the seven-match series in Sri Lanka, Ali hit 119 off just 87 balls although it was not enough to prevent a defeat for England. In the third match he scored 58 and took figures of 2–36 as England won their first match of the tour.