Moeen Ali intends to prove his fitness in Worcestershire’s County Championship curtain-raiser at home to Yorkshire on Sunday before booking himself on to the next plane bound for the Caribbean to join England’s Test team.
A left abdominal tear the all-rounder suffered during the World Cup-ending defeat to Bangladesh on 9 March meant the 27-year-old was the man left behind when Alastair Cook’s side left for warmer climes 10 days ago and the three-Test series. But while he will miss Monday’s opener against West Indies in Antigua, Moeen has already batted in a two-day warm-up fixture against Northamptonshire, making 38, and has been bowling his off-spinners in the nets for the past nine days. Whether he can do so against the champions will depend on a late fitness test.
“It’s a massive motivation for me to try to get fit – I feel like I’m ready now,” said Moeen. “I was disappointed, even though I was injured, not to see my name [in the England squad]. I miss playing for England and I’m determined to get out there.”
That Moeen has become so key to England’s plans is testament to an expectation-defying first international summer in which he claimed 22 wickets in seven Tests against Sri Lanka and India. That haul landed him on the front cover of this year’s Wisden, in which he was named as one of their five cricketers of the year.
“It’s the biggest award I’ve had – a great honour,” Moeen said. “I’ve been collecting the books for a while now, and to follow Sachin Tendulkar on the front cover is amazing. I feel like I’m part of the Test team now, especially as I contributed to winning the series against India with the ball. But I don’t take anything for granted. I still play every game like it’s my first and my last. I’m looking forward to going out to the West Indies and performing.”
Should Moeen get through the next four days against Yorkshire, he could be back in whites for England for the second Test in Grenada that starts on 21 April. The left-handed bat, who struck a maiden Test century against Sri Lanka at Headingley last June, believes the series is an ideal springboard for the dual challenges of New Zealand and Australia this summer. But he is also mindful that question marks over his ability to handle the short ball at international level will remain until he has properly negotiated the likes of Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson with a red ball.
“Now I’ve tasted a bit of these guys [at the World Cup] I feel I’m much more ready than I was last year,” he admitted. “It’s something that I never struggled with before but Test cricket is a lot different. I probably thought about it too much and worked on it too much in the end, and forgot about the rest of my batting. I’ve learned from that now.”
With the ball in hand, however, Moeen insists he does not scare easily. “When I bowl at players, I pretend I’m bowling at Virat Kohli, because I feel he’s the best in the world,” he revealed. “I bowl quite well if I do that. I want to become a good No6 batsman and be the main spinner in the side. Then hopefully I can go up the order a bit in future.”
