“I thought the previous winter that the chance might have passed me by to play for England”
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
Just a year ago, England batsman Moeen Ali admitted that he feared his chance of representing his country in a Test match had passed.
But, fast forward to today and Ali is on the brink of making his Test debut against Sri Lanka at Lord’s.
Given that Ali has a lot of potential with the bat and ball, he is likely to take over the number six spot on the Test roster.
Ali is likely to be England’s go-to spinner following the retirement of Graeme Swann. In addition to this, Ali recently added the doosra to his arsenal thanks to Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal, who is his team-mate at Worcestershire.
“I thought the previous winter that the chance might have passed me by to play for England but I put my foot down and really worked hard on my game and to score mountains of runs,” Ali said. “This winter’s experience has given me the hunger to want to play more international cricket and obviously the next step is Test cricket.
“I loved my time for England during the winter and everyone made me feel so welcome and part of the squad and, apart from the last couple of T20s when I didn’t get many runs, overall I was quite pleased.”
Worcestershire’s director of cricket, Steve Rhodes, noted that Ali has one of the best work ethics out of all the club’s players.
“No-one hits more balls in practice than Moeen and he thoroughly deserved his call-up during the winter with Lions and then for the full tours including the World Cup,” he said. “But what a fantastic thing that is for this club, that we’ve now got a player in the England Test squad who loves playing at this club.”