The message flashing on Moeen Ali’s mobile phone was simple and to the point.
“Ashes?”
It came from England captain Ben Stokes, who had just learnt that his premier spinner — Jack Leach — was likely to miss the entire test series against Australia because of a back injury and was on the look-out for a replacement.
Ali’s first response? “LOL.”
The news of Leach’s absence was quickly confirmed so Ali thought about it, and realized how much fun it would be to play for England again given the team’s new-found attacking approach under Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum.
This was also the Ashes, he said to himself, the biggest test series in cricket.
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So Ali decided to come out of test retirement and could be thrown straight into England’s team for the first match at Edgbaston on Friday.
There he was on Tuesday, back in his test match whites and facing the glare of the English media. Like he does on the field, he adopted a relaxed approach.
“I spoke to Stokesy about how he talks to the batters and he says it will be perfect for the way (I) play,” Ali said. “There are no question marks over any shots that you play, which gives me the license to play a few more rash shots, I guess.
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“Even with the ball, just speaking to him, he is more on the aggressive side. I know I go for runs and all that kind of stuff but he knows there’s also wicket-taking deliveries in between, which is all he cares about, really.”
And that’s the message that appears to have been sent to Ali.
Don’t change.
“I’ve never been able to hold an end up,” Ali said of his spin bowling. “When I have, it’s when I’ve been taking wickets — it’s the only time I have been able to build any sort of pressure. And I know Ben and Baz (McCullum) know that. You want to take wickets all the time but doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.
“But there might be times where I need to build a bit of pressure and stuff, and play the game that’s in front of me. I’m sure they know what they are going to get from me.”
Ali quit test cricket in September 2021 to focus on the shorter formats, having played 67 tests for England and scored 2,914 runs, as well as taking 195 wickets. A couple of statistical milestones are in reach, then, for the 35-year-old Ali, who doesn’t know how long he’ll continue to play the longer format.
After all, rewind to 2019 when he was dropped after the first test of the Ashes series, and didn’t return.
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“Was that four years ago? Really? Seems like yesterday,” he said. “I have forgotten about those things. I’ve moved on now. It’s a bit of a fresh start and we see how we go.
“I’m a kind of guy who’s a bit, ‘Go with the flow.’ At the moment, it’s just these (first) two games. Let’s play these games and see what happens.”
Ali comes into the Ashes in good spirits having just won the Indian Premier League with Chennai Super Kings, where he was alongside Stokes, who barely played because of injuries.
“We spoke at the IPL and he didn’t mention anything about coming out of retirement,” Ali said. “It was more just about the Ashes and how he was looking to take the team.
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“Obviously then there was Leachy’s injury. He (Stokes) had watched me train and he still thinks I can bowl decently.”
Ali has been back in England since the IPL and playing again for his home county, Warwickshire, which plays its games at Edgbaston — the venue for the first Test. He has been captaining its Twenty20 team, the Birmingham Bears, too.
The Ashes is a completely different world, though, and Australia coach Andrew McDonald has said Leach’s absence and Ali’s return represents a “challenge” for England.
“Mo hasn’t played a red-ball game for an extended period of time,” McDonald said. “No doubt he’ll be prepared — he’s had a couple of weeks’ notice.
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“But I think Jack Leach really complemented that attack, and his wicket-taking ability and the way Ben Stokes has used him has been a little more aggressive and has reaped some great reward.”
McDonald said England’s attack will “look different.”
“Mo has 190-odd test wickets as well (and) strengthens their lower order, so it won’t be the same but they’ll have to operate fractionally differently – no doubt about that.”
