Ashes: Moeen Ali is back in squad, a look at his performance

Moeen Ali is back in England’s test squad after their leading off-spinner, Jack Leach was ruled out for the Ashes due to a stress fracture in the back. Ali on Monday revealed that he was approached by the England Cricket Board (ECB) to reverse his test retirement. The all-rounder was in constant discussion with Test Captain Ben Stokes, Test Coach Brendon McCullum and Managing Director Rob Key. The ECB on Wednesday announced Moeen Ali as the replacement for injured Jack Leach. Leach had gone for scans after England’s 10-wicket win over Ireland which revealed that he had a stress fracture in his lower back.

Moeen Ali replaces Jack Leach not just as a bowler but is also a pretty handy option with the bat. When Moeen retired in September 2021, England played under the captaincy of Joe Root and since then a lot has changed in their Test setup. In April 2022, Ben Stokes was given the captaincy of the Test team and a new style of play was invented. The term ‘Bazball’ was invented and England’s test fortune changed very quickly. The term Bazball came from the nickname of their Test Coach Brendon McCullum. The bazball style of play is basically playing an aggressive style of cricket both with bat and ball, we have talked more about bazball in our previous article. This style of cricket has already brought a lot of success getting them 11 wins from their last 13 matches.

Moeen Ali

Moeen Ali does not replace Jack Leach just as a spinner but also brings a lot of batting prowess with him. The ‘Bazball’ style of play is expected to suit him even more as he is naturally a very aggressive batter.

Ali has played 64 test matches and has taken 195 wickets with 5 five-wicket hauls and 1 ten-wicket haul. He has also scored 2914 runs during this period and has five centuries and 14 half-centuries to his name.

Moeen Ali Batting Stats

Matches	Innings	Runs	Highest score	Average	Strike Rate	50s	100s	200s
64	111	2914	155	28.29	51.15	14	5	0

Moeen Ali Bowling stats

Matches	Innings	Runs	Wickets	BBI	BBM	Economy	Average	Strike Rate	5W	10W
64	112	7149	195	6/53	10/112	3.62	36.66	60.79	5	1

Moeen Ali against Australia

Moeen Ali against Australia has struggled a lot, especially with the ball in hand. In 11 matches against Australia, the right-arm off-spinner has picked up just 20 wickets at an average of 64.45 with a strike rate of 100.5. With the bat in hand too his numbers aren’t that great he has scored 476 runs at an average of 25.05 against them including two half-centuries.

Will Moeen Ali be a good replacement only time will tell but one thing is for sure with Bazball approach, Moeen could better his test batting records significantly.

Also Read: The Ashes: Schedule, Venue and other details

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