Moeen Ali is set to return to England’s 50-over side as an opener for the upcoming one-day series against Australia. Moeen and his expected partner, Alex Hales, will be vying to join Alastair Cook at the top of the Test batting order for the away series against Pakistan.
The 28-year-old was deployed there during last winter’s World Cup but missed the electric 3-2 series win over New Zealand in June as the selectors looked to keep him playing red-ball cricket for Worcestershire before the Ashes.
In his absence, the Surrey right-hander Jason Roy was paired with Hales and while his top score in five matches was 38, their stunning opening stand of 100 in 10.4 overs in the fourth one-dayer at Trent Bridge did set up a record chase of 350.
However, Moeen is considered part of England’s first-choice one-day XI and, after operating as a frustrated No8 in Tests this summer, has been told he will partner Hales against the world champions, starting in Southampton on 3 September, with the squad to be named next week. Reports on Saturday night suggested Joe Root and Ben Stokes were also likely to be rested from the five-match series.
The alliance of Moeen and Hales will throw up an intriguing subplot, giving the head coach, Trevor Bayliss, a closer look at their talents against the new ball – albeit in 50-over cricket – as England consider options to replace Adam Lyth in the Test side for the tours to the United Arab Emirates and South Africa.
Lyth went into the fifth Test here with Cook admitting that runs were needed if the Yorkshireman was to make the plane. The left-hander failed twice, however, with a duffed pull to mid-on off Peter Siddle in the first innings followed up by edging the same man to second slip for 10 .
The 27-year-old has averaged 12.8 in the series and, despite a century in his second Test against New Zealand at Headingley in May, has struggled to convince observers that his run-making abilities at county level can translate on to the international stage.
Nottinghamshire’s Hales, who passed 1,000 first-class runs for the season en route to 189 against Warwickshire on Friday, is pushing hard to replace Lyth. But with Pakistan next up on the turning pitches of the UAE, the management are also considering Moeen as a way of accommodating the uncapped leg-spinner Adil Rashid.
Surrey’s Zafar Ansari, a left-arm spin-bowling all-rounder who won his solitary one-day cap against Ireland in May, is another in consideration for the Test trip with Yorkshire’s Gary Ballance expected to return to the squad as reserve batsman after making a point with his 165 against Sussex at Hove.
Ballance, who was dropped after the second Test at Lord’s, is waiting to hear whether he will retain his central contract, with the director of England cricket, Andrew Strauss, set to announce the recipients for 2015-16 next month after his list is signed off by the England and Wales Cricket Board.
Strauss’s selections for the year ahead will be intriguing, with the deals having previously handed been out in alignment with England’s first-choice Test side since their introduction in 2000. But upon his appointment at the start of the summer, and in the wake of the dismal white-ball campaign last winter, Strauss went on record to state that one-day cricketers should be given equal importance as he plans for the World Cup on home soil in 2019.
Cook, Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Ian Bell are now seemingly single-format players whereas, for example, Eoin Morgan, who has not been centrally contracted since 2013, is captain of the one-day and Twenty20 sides.
