Covid-hit Mo: I’d never been so tired in my life
All-rounder reveals toll of virus ahead of Test comeback
MOEEN ALI feels ready to return to Test cricket later this week with a new perspective on his game after emerging from Covid isolation.
Moeen, 33, has not featured for 18 months in the traditional form of t he game but his partly selfenforced exile could end as England begin their second series of the winter in Chennai on Friday.
It would have done so in Sri Lanka earlier this month but for the all- rounder becoming the first England cricketer to be ruled out of selection through a positive coronavirus test. Housed separately from the team for 13 days, he was released ahead of the second Test of the 2-0 win there but was not deemed fit enough.
‘For four or five days we had to be careful because I think heart-rate can be an issue after Covid for people who do a bit of running,’ Moeen said. ‘From my point of view, I’m good now, but I have no match practice or anything. So, I’ll train as hard as I can, spend time on my feet and try to be ready.’
All 45 members of England’s touring party had tested negative before flying out to Hambantota for three months of cricket in Asia in the first few hours of 2021, but the Worcestershire player felt ill before disembarking.
Moeen recalled: ‘When the test was positive, I was not surprised, because once I landed, I didn’t feel great. Through the evening I had splitting headaches that lasted for three days. I had loss of taste for a day or so, my body was very sore, and the fatigue was....I’ve never experienced that sort of tiredness before in my life. But it was three days feeling pretty rough and the rest was fine.’
He has not played Test cricket since his decision to focus solely on limited-overs action for England in the wake of being dropped one match into the 2019 Ashes.
The interim, says a man whose immediate target is to become only the second England off-spinner to reach 200 wickets after Graeme Swann, has provided time for reflection although not regret.
‘It makes you reassess. I wanted to see if I missed it and if I yearned to play it again, at the time I was playing so much cricket — and I’d been dropped — I thought it was a chance to take a step back,’ Moeen said.
‘And I enjoyed it, played a few leagues around the world — but ultimately it was Test cricket that I missed, and I felt like I could still do quite well in.
‘The one thing I did learn is that when you’re playing Test cricket, you’re on top of your game in terms of your batting and bowling — your technique. I always watched guys previously who just went white-ball and I felt like as soon as they had a couple of tournaments where they didn’t do so well, they were pretty much out of it.
‘ But the guys who generally played red-ball cricket, their whiteball was always decent and quite consistent. When you are playing red ball, you are hitting a lot more balls, you’re bowling a lot more.
‘With T20 cricket, as much as it is hitting sixes, fours etc, the basis of your technique has to be good. It doesn’t surprise me the likes of Jos
Buttler and Ben Stokes — the two best T20 players around in my opinion — play Test cricket. Their defence is pretty solid, and I feel it does help you going forward and gives you more confidence. When I was playing all forms, I felt like I was better with my white-ball.’
His latest absence has added to England’s selection dil emmas ahead of a four- match series in which Moeen was earmarked to sit out the final two as part of a rest and rotation policy. The most obvious way into the XI for him — fielding three spinners appears unlikely given Joe Root’s ability with the ball — would be as a direct replacement for Dom Bess, whose excellent figures of 12 wickets at 21 apiece in Sri Lanka outstripped the quality of his performances.
Such a choice would stiffen the batting at a ground where Moeen scored one of his f i v e Te s t centuries four years ago.