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Moeen Ali
Moeen Ali
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All-rounder, Moeen Ali calls it the day from all international cricket after being overlooked from the squad for the upcoming home white-ball series against Australia. Says he has done his part.

A decade after making his international debut against West Indies in Antigua in the first ODI of the series, the 37-year-old, after representing England in 68 Tests, 138 ODIs and 92 T20Is where he scored 6,678 runs and scalping 366 wickets across formats has said that it is time for the next generation to take over.

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What did Moeen Ali say?

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Ali announced his retirement as he said, "I'm 37 years old and didn't get picked for this month's Australia series. I've played a lot of cricket for England. It's time for the next generation, which was also explained to me. It felt like the time was right. I've done my part.

"I'm very proud. When you first play for England, you don't know how many games you're going to play. So to play nearly 300... My first few years were all about Test cricket. Once Morgs [Eoin Morgan] took over the one-day stuff, that was more fun. But Test cricket was proper cricket," he added.

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The 37-year-old last played for England in the semi-final loss against India in the recently concluded T20 World Cup. With examples like Liam Plunkett who didn't play for England ever after the World Cup win in 2019 or Dawid Malan who recently retired from international cricket after being sidelined after the World Cup in India last year, Ali decided to be realistic and not try too hard to come back while he still believes that he has still got what it takes to don the England shirt.

"Even now, I've tried to be realistic. I could hold on and try to play for England again, but I know in reality I won't. Even retiring, I don't feel it's because I'm not good enough -- I still feel I can play. But I get how things are, and the team needs to evolve into another cycle. It's about being real to myself," said the all-rounder.

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He added, "People forget the impact you make in games. It might only have been 20 or 30, but it was a crucial 20 or 30. For me, it was about making an impact. I know what I brought to the side, on and off the field. As long as I felt people enjoyed watching me play, whether or not I did well, I was happy with that."

He also mentioned his desire and intentions to still continue to play some league cricket for some time before finally calling it a day and jumping into coaching roles.

"A bit of franchise cricket, because I still love playing. But coaching is something I want to do -- I want to be one of the best. I can learn a lot from Baz [Brendon McCullum]. I hope people remember me as a free spirit. I played some nice shots and some bad shots, but hopefully people enjoyed watching me," he concluded.

In recent months, he has played a lot of franchise cricket around the world while still putting up some good performances in the IPL, SA20, BPL and most recently in the CPL.

How has Moeen Ali performed in Tests, ODI and T20I?

Batting
FormatInningsRunsAverage/Strike Rate50/100Highest
Test118308428.12/51.7915/5155*
ODI112235524.27/98.166/3128
T20I75122921.18/142.417/072
Bowling
FormatInningsWicketsEconomy/Avg5wkts/10wktsBest Figures
Test1192043.62/37.315/16/53
ODI1281115.32/47.84-4/46
T20I71518.31/27.13-3/24

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Author(s)
Mayank Bande Photo

Mayank Bande is a content producer for The Sporting News’ India edition.