Underappreciated Ali will be huge loss for England - Root
Joe Root described Moe en Ali’ s retirement from Test cricket as a ‘huge loss’ to England and reflected ruefully that the offspinning all-rounder sometimes did not get the credit he deserved outside the team.
Moeen announced the end of an eventful Test career filled with high sand lows over the course of seven years and 64 appearances, in which he harvested 2,914 runs at an average of 28.29 and 195 wickets at 36.66.
Derek Underwood and Graeme Swann are the only spinners to have taken more wickets for England than Moe en, a 2015 Ashes winner who took a hat-trick against South Africa in 2017 and had five five for sand as many hundreds.
While he endured a turbulent time in the 2017/18 Ashes Down Under and was then dropped after a poor display in the 2019 series opener, which started a long spell out the side, Root insisted Moeen was valued in the inner sanctum.
The England captain said: “It goes without saying that Mo’s career speaks for itself and what he has achieved, he’ s done some wonderful things in Test cricket and he’s been one of the great guys to play alongside. He’ll be a huge loss. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed sharing that dressing room with him and we’ve had so many wonderful memories, on the field and off the field.
“At times he has been underappreciated, not within
the dressing room, but outside of that. He’s a great personality to have in and around the dressing room, and he’ s a great brain for younger players to learn from and to feed off.
“But more than anything I just want to wish him well for everything he has got coming
up and the rest of his career because he’s still going to go on and achieve so many great things, I’m certain of it.”
Moeen was the leading wicket-taker in the world in the 12 months leading up to the 2019 Ashes but match figures of three for 172 and just four runs with the bat in the first Test at Edgbaston led to him being dropped.
He lost his Test central contract later that year, a decision which he told the Guardian and ESPN Cricinfo “did break me a little bit”, and was not drafted back into the side until last January.
He contracted Covid-19 which ruled him out of the Sri Lanka tour and played just one Test against India, with Root apologising after mistakenly saying Moeen had “chosen” to go home when it was down to a rest and rotation policy.