In order to prolong his white-ball career, England all-rounder Moeen Ali retired from Test cricket in 2021 following the home series against India.
However, Moeen decided to come out of Test retirement earlier this month after being approached by England skipper Ben Stokes. First-choice spinner Jack Leach’s back injury ahead of the five Ashes Tests against Australia paved the way for Ali’s return to the longest format.
Moeen Ali is currently featuring in the Ashes 2023 opener for England against Australia at Edgbaston. His comeback hasn’t been ideal so far as the left-arm spinner conceded 147 runs from his 33 overs in Australia’s first innings.
In fact, Moeen struggled to bowl for the hosts on Day 3 as his finger injury resurfaced. He was also seen applying spray on the index finger of his bowling hand.
After the third day’s play in Birmingham, former England captains Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain weighed in on Moeen Ali’s performance and expressed concern over his injury.
“[Applying the spray] shows Moeen has got real issues with that spinning finger because he hasn’t been playing red-ball cricket. He is going to have a lot of bowling to do in this Test match and potentially the series,” Atherton said on Sky Sports Cricket.
“It is the whole debate about the difference between white-ball and Test cricket. Jonny Bairstow has not kept that much and we saw the sloppiness that happens after a day in the field. Moeen hasn’t bowled with a red Dukes ball for a long, long time,” added Hussain.
Talking about the Edgbaston Test, England bundled out Australia for 386 to take a meagre 7-run lead in the first innings. Besides Usman Khawaja’s century, Alex Carey (66) and Travis Head (50) slammed fifties for the tourists.
For England, Ollie Robinson (3-55) and Stuart Broad (3-68) claimed three wickets each while Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes and James Anderson shared the remaining four scalps among them.
At stumps on Day 3, England scored 28/2, extending their second innings lead to 35 runs with Ollie Pope (0*) and Joe Root (0*) unbeaten in the middle.
