Moeen Ali will win his 100th ODI cap in Friday’s World Cup group game against Sri Lanka, a deserved milestone for a player who made his debut in 2014 and has flourished to become an integral part of the squad.
Recently turned 32, Moeen is among Eoin Morgan’s core of senior players and as an all-rounder, his cricketing value is obvious. But perhaps one of his most under-rated virtues is the sense of fun he brings to a dressing room that is trying to stay relaxed while the pressure to deliver increases.
This certainly came to the fore when Moeen spoke at Headingley before the Sri Lanka match. A fair chunk of the talk still surrounded Morgan’s astonishing 17 sixes against Afghanistan. But Moeen, who swatted a nine-ball 31 at the end, could not resist a dig.
“I think mine was probably the biggest the other day,” he smiled, in reference to the first of his four sixes which soared 93 metres over long-off and brought up Rashid Khan’s gallon on the day, and thus went a metre further than Morgan’s best.
Moeen ranks his 53-ball century against West Indies at Bristol in 2017 – a day that would be overshadowed by events involving Ben Stokes and Alex Hales during in the hours that followed – as his ODI highlight. He also uses it as ammunition in a side that regularly produces such fireworks.
He explained: “When players go past 53 balls then I can always say: ‘Yeah, it’s a great knock but still a bit slow for my liking.’ If someone was on 52 balls and needed six or less to get a hundred, I’m always hoping they don’t push me further down the list.
“We’re just having a lot of fun and ripping each other all the time. We get stuck into everything – about the football, about Fifa – it is all part of team-bonding and very natural. We are a close team, we don’t have team dinners or stuff like that because every night guys are together naturally.
1) Jason Roy - 97m v Bangladesh
2) Moeen Ali - 93m v Afghanistan
3) Eoin Morgan - 92m v Afghanistan
“It is by far the best team I’ve ever played with, not just on the field but the environment. That is credit to the guys in charge.”
Another example of this came at the back end of the Afghanistan game when Jonny Bairstow, who had dropped two catches, held one on the rope and turned to the crowd for a huge double fist-pump. The Yorkshireman can be prickly but his teammates were still quick to pounce with the mickey-taking.
Moeen said: “Jonny gets stick no matter what he does. He gave it a bit too much with the celebration. You cannot get away with anything and I don’t miss a trick. I do not miss a thing.”
All this may sound secondary but for Moeen it is hugely important. The team that reached the final of the World T20 in 2016, he said, never once let up on this front but by 2017, when the Champions Trophy came around, they tightened up before their disappointing semi-final defeat.
“We probably took it a bit too seriously,” he said. “We have spoken about it and this time we want to stay true to ourselves even more as the pressure grows, both in the way we play and in the way we are as a team.
“We actually need to have more of a laugh and enjoy it as much as we can. We are only going to do this once and it is a great opportunity to win the World Cup at home.”
And the biggest six-hitter? “Jos Buttler. With ease. Some guys are brutal. Jonny Bairstow is brutal, but Jos is power with timing. Morgy does hit big sixes, Jason Roy is absolutely about power. But I think I’m the best out of all of them.”
England have struck 47 sixes in five matches at this World Cup – they managed 15 in the 2015 campaign – and it is Roy, still out with a hamstring injury, whose 97-metre effort against Bangladesh flew the furthest.
It was another facet of their game that drew praise from Sri Lanka’s Dimuth Karunaratne on the eve of the game, however. “I think England is the best batting lineup against the spinners around the world,” said the opener. [Even] if you take the Asian countries, England play it better than them.”
It is a good job they have a character such as Moeen in the ranks or the talk could go to their heads.
