England all-rounder Moeen Ali chose to come out from his Test retirement to play under the leadership of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum. He has always been known for playing assertive cricket and he recently revealed that the decision came after Brendon McCullum himself chose to call him and convinced him to join the Test squad.
Talking about the same, during a recent chat with Sports Today, Moeen Ali said, “Baz called and told me that, ‘look, this will suit your type of cricket etc, so yeah. In my opinion, Ben Stokes is showing that it is okay to get out playing shots and England do need a bit of that. There will be bad days, of course, but there were many bad days that were happening, there weren’t any good days anyway.”
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When asked about the captaincy conundrum Team India is facing after Rohit Shama racing against time to get fit after testing positive for Covid-19, Moeen Ali felt that the team should be led by Virat Kohli.
Moeen Ali elaborated, “Because Virat was the captain earlier in the last series, I would give it (captaincy) to him for this one game. But it is obviously his call if he wants to take it or not. He is probably relaxed and happy, his mind is probably settled with not being the Test captain. He’s got the experience, and to be honest with you, this is a big series for India.”
The English all-rounder reckons that the Indian team will be facing a stiff challenge to be up against a steep competition and might be the underdogs coming into the rescheduled Test in Birmingham.
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Moeen Ali elaborated, “If this series was finished last year, India would have won 3-1, but now, I feel the way England have played I think India might be slightly undercooked, due to the lack of cricket in England. If England come out the way they have played in the last few games, England will be the favorites.”
India will be locking horns with England in the fifth and the final Test match of the 2021 series on 1 July at Edgbaston.
