After announcing his retirement from international cricket, Moeen Ali said that there were times when he felt he failed to score more runs while batting.
Moeen, who last played for England in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, announced his retirement from the the international game on Sunday. Moeen believed that the time was right for him after understanding that he was no longer in consideration for the side’s future assignments.
The all-rounder has featured in 298 international matches from 2014-2024 for the English side in his cricketing career. Moeen made his international debut in 2014 against the West Indies. He scored 6,678 international runs and picked up 366 wickets. He won the 2019 Cricket World Cup and 2022 T20 World Cup with the senior men’s side.
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Speaking after announcing his retirement, Moeen said that he was proud of getting five Test hundreds.
“I’m also proud of getting five Test hundreds. It’s only five, but it means a lot, especially when I was often down the order. There were times I felt I left runs out there, or didn’t do my batting justice. There were brainfades, but I enjoyed batting like that,” Moeen was quoted by Wisden as saying.
The 37-year-old added that he didn’t have the discipline of Joe Root. He tried to rectify it but didn’t work.
“They [the brainfades] often came from not having a role in the side. Also, I didn’t have the discipline of a Joe Root. I tried to rectify that, but I just didn’t have it: I was a go-with-the-flow player. There were times I did things I shouldn’t have done. But it was almost exciting, as I’d wake up and think: I don’t know what I’m going to get here,” he added.
As a youngster, Moeen tended towards batting, but in the England shirt, he developed his bowling well enough to become their leading bowler in the Tests. He finished with 204 Test scalps, making him just the third England spinner behind Derek Underwood (297) and Graeme Swann (255).
In 68 Tests, he scored 3,094 runs at an average of 28.12, with five centuries and 15 fifties. In 138 ODIs, he has scored 2,355 runs at an average of 24.27, with three centuries and six fifties. His best score is 128. The all-rounder also took 111 wickets in ODIs, with the best figures of 4/46.
In 92 T20Is, Moeen scored 1,229 runs at an average of 21.18 and a strike rate of 142.41, with seven fifties. He also took 51 wickets, with the best score of 3/24.
