Moeen Ali keen to take second chance with England after 18-month absence

When Moeen Ali decided to return to Test cricket, accepting a call-up for the tours of Sri Lanka and India, he could not have envisaged a worse start.

Upon arrival into Sri Lanka for the first of the winter’s six Tests, he tested positive for Covid-19 and was immediately placed into quarantine in his hotel room. A scheduled release on the eve of the first Test at Galle at least meant he could make himself available for the second Test. But with Moeen still displaying symptoms, Sri Lankan authorities extended his isolation for a further two days and, with that, his tour was ultimately over.

Though he now finds himself in another quarantine, the circumstances are much cheerier. Now in Chennai, he is available for the first of four Tests against India, which starts on Friday. After a slow build-up after release in Sri Lanka, training every day throughout the second while England secured a 2-0 series win, finally his 2021 can begin.

“It's one of those things,” Moeen says, typically phlegmatically. “It has been tough but I’m a big believer in ‘after hardship comes ease’. Hopefully, there is some ease after this.

“I was not surprised, I had a feeling because once I landed I didn’t feel great. I had loss of taste for a day or so, splitting headaches for three days, body was very sore and the fatigue. I’ve never experienced that sort of tiredness before in my life. It was three days feeling pretty rough and the rest was fine. When I initially got it I thought the next five days will be crucial here, I didn’t want the cough and fever and thankfully I didn’t have that. There’s part of you that’s worried and anticipating it would be bad.

“The 14 days felt like they were dragging. The last four days, in particular, were very tough because I felt fine but I was just stuck in a room. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone to be honest with you, just stuck there. Especially when you land on a tour and then you’re positive, and then you get out and towards the end you’re watching the wicket spinning and you want to be out there.”

He suspects he contracted the virus on the plane or at the airport. None of his family tested positive, nor did Chris Woakes, who travelled with Moeen from Birmingham to London for the flight out of the United Kingdom and also had to isolate as a “close contact”. One thing for certain is that his focus is now on unfinished business in the Test arena.

It has been 18 months since the last of his 60 caps. Match figures in 2019’s first Ashes Test of three for 172 and four runs – dismissed twice by Nathan Lyon, once for a duck – saw him cut from the squad. He then played two County Championship matches for Worcestershire before the end of the summer. Those remain his last red-ball fixtures.

Aged 33, and with the emergence of Jack Leach and Dom Bess, the feeling was that Moeen’s time was up. The shame as much his as England’s: 181 wickets and five Test hundreds solid nods to a unique all-round talent, adding left-handed grace to the batting card and filling a sizeable void left by off-spinner Graeme Swann.

So it will hearten many to hear he still has an appetite to add to those numbers. That he believes he has more “match-winning performances” to give. Especially after leaving Test cricket on such difficult terms in a summer where he also lost his ODI spot during the run-in to England’s 2019 World Cup win.

“I would have said I must have played really bad,” he answers when asked if he ever expected to go this long between call-ups. “And I did.  

“I was doing well. I had a bad game. Rightly so, I was dropped. But then I saw it as an opportunity, this is my time. Let me take a bit more responsibility on myself and almost just step away a little bit to see how I am going. I just felt mentally that I was drained at the time.  

“During the World Cup I got dropped for the last three games there. We played Ireland and I hardly bowled. I remember in the build-up to that game, it just rained and I didn’t bowl outside. I just felt like it was tough. To just step away and give myself a break was nice to be honest with you.”

Should he get the nod for the starting XI this week, he will be returning to a happier place, figuratively and literally. It was at Chennai where he scored 146, the last of his Test centuries, on a largely forgettable tour at the end of 2016. His batting during this series, which England lost 4-0, was a positive – he reached 117 in the first Test at Rajkot – but at odds with his bowling, returning 10 wickets at a pricey 64.90.

He has set himself the challenge on improving on both. Not just to benefit the team but, more broadly, to make a better impression second time around. And the incentive of moving above Jim Laker, 12 dismissals away on 193, and into the next hundred to move third on wickets taken by English spinners, adds that little bit extra.

“I have little targets I want to achieve first. I am not too far away from getting 200 wickets. I know people say they don’t look at these things but it would be something I would look at. Then I would set another target after that.  

“I am just going to go series by series, not take things for granted too much. I think I got to a point when I was going on every tour and I was almost too comfortable. It is a nice position to be in now and as much as you don’t fight with guys for places, I feel like it is a drive and has motivated me big time.”

With England set to rest and rotate their players through the series, Moeen was originally pencilled in to miss the third and fourth Tests. However, that could be subject to change given what transpired in Sri Lanka.

“If I’m playing and doing well then things could change,” he says. In every sense, it will be a good thing for England and Moeen if he’s in it for the long haul.