In the summer of 2023, I worked in an office. I normally set off for work around 1:30 in the afternoon, took the bus to work, and reached by 3 in the afternoon. After reaching the office, I generally went about the same routine. My charger would be plugged in, my earphones switched from my phone to my laptop, and my pen and notebook kept ready to begin work. The final step would always be setting up my laptop. A Google Doc would generally be open for whatever I was working on, perhaps a couple of tabs of research, and finally, a secret tab of ESPNCricinfo would be open so that from my corner cubicle I could follow every ball of the epic contest between Bazballian bluster and the recently crowned World Test Champions Australia.
On some days, however, my secret tab would be upgraded from a scorecard to SonyLiv, only to watch one man bat – Moeen Ali.
Moeen called time on his international career on 8th September after being left out of England’s white-ball squads for their upcoming matches against Australia. He called time on a career with 3094 runs and 204 wickets in Tests, 2355 runs and 111 wickets in ODIs, and 1229 runs and 51 wickets in T20Is.
The popular consensus on Ali is that he was a tremendously gifted player capable of delighting and frustrating in equal measure. One moment he might hit the most glorious of drives, but he might equally attempt the same shot the next ball and nick behind. He could produce the most beautiful off-spinner through the gate, but he could also produce the filthiest of full tosses as well.
The numbers bear this out as well. Five glorious Test centuries are a reflection of a more than capable batter but averages of 28, 24, and 21 reflect runs that were left out in the middle. More to the point, the highs of Moeen (like his 16-ball 50 against South Africa, his 107 against the West Indies, and his 54 against Australia in the most recent Ashes) always leave you room to dream of what could have been. Imagine 10,000 runs gloriously carved through point or violently placed over cow corner.
That said, his international career is far from one to be classified as a failure. He walks away from the international game having won the Ashes, ODI and T20 World Cups, and is one of 25 players with 2000 runs and 200 wickets in Test cricket. Not bad for missed potential. One can also add the fact that until right until the end of his white-ball career, Moeen has never had a particularly defined role in his teams with bat or ball, as justified by the fact that he has batted everywhere from 1 to 9 in the Test team. His role has essentially been whatever the team needs. Nothing epitomises this like his final Test stint in the 2023 Ashes. Although a last-minute replacement, the raw numbers are impressively unimpressive, 180 runs at 25 and 9 wickets at 51. A deeper dive, however, tells us a different story. He started the series batting at number 8, but volunteered to push up to number 3 when Ollie Pope got injured so that other batters could bat in their natural positions. With the ball, 9 wickets may seem unimpressive, but it contained the wickets of Marnus Labuschagne (twice), Steve Smith, Cameron Green, Mitchell Marsh, and Travis Head (thrice), including three on the final day of the series to win England.
Ultimately, though, I’m not convinced that raw numbers really do justice to my love for Moeen Ali. When the great players retire, we often (myself included) speak in platitudes, saying that the numbers don’t really matter, it’s about how they made us feel. We often don’t really mean it. I mean it for Moeen.
When I think of Moeen, I don’t think of an innings, a great run of form, or a tournament. I think of one shot. It’s a shot from Day 2 of the 4th Test of the 2023 Ashes with England 2-1 down in the series. He had walked to the crease at 3, with the 9-1 replying to Australia’s 317 all out. He is 20*, having weathered the Australian new ball storm to reach 44-1. Pat Cummins has brought himself on. Two balls into Cummins’ second over, Moeen attempts an off-drive. He gets a thick edge that flies agonisingly wide of Cameron Green, and the ball flies away for four. Cummins’ tail is now up, and he comes charging in for the next ball, pitched up just outside the off-stump. Everyone around the bat anticipates a chance, but Moeen meets it with the full face of the bat, tenderly caressing it with an absurd amount of force to rattle it through covers for another boundary (to save you time, 3:53 to 4:14). Sometimes in school, you encounter a teacher for whom you require no convincing, cajoling or forcing to do work, you simply want to. In much the same way, the ball requires no convincing to go to the boundary; when Moeen politely asks, it simply goes.
It’s the kind of shot that makes you blush. It’s the kind of shot that makes your heart flutter, gives you the slightest goosebumps and makes you go, “Oh my!” I’m not a man particularly given to poetry, but I’m fairly certain that when Shakespeare said, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” he was talking about this shot. Even in the highlights, you can hear the crowd go, “Awwww.”
This is everything I love about Moeen Ali in a nutshell. If I were building a cricketer tomorrow, especially a Test match cricketer, this shot would not be in their arsenal. Good cricketing logic tells you not to throw your hands at a ball that wide, gently let it thud into the wicketkeeper’s gloves instead. But if I were building the cricketer that I would want to watch, that same shot would be first in the armoury. That is the biggest compliment I can give to Moeen Ali, aside of course, from “Shot, Mo.”
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