Moeen Ali – Hearing of poor James’ heart trouble put T20 Final defeat in perspective

Peter Hayter catches up with Moeen Ali to talk about the World T20, the shock retirement of his friend James Taylor, and England

You can tell someone means business if he pulls out all the stops when nobody is watching. There was more than nobody present for Worcestershire’s recent County Championship Division Two match in Bristol, but certainly not enough to justify use of the word crowd, not least because it was one of the coldest cricketing days on record, the other reason why Moeen Ali’s performance on a long day in the field was so impressive.

He didn’t have a great deal to do, but one diving stop at mid-off drew a round of applause from his team-mates, another drag back on the point boundary got the huddled “masses” excited and, when skipper Daryl Mitchell was looking for someone to go under the lid in the final session, he looked no further than the England all-rounder.

Unlike one or two more used to wearing the three lions on his shirt, “the beard that’s feared” accepted it without a murmur, though he did joke afterwards: “It was so cold I was hoping I would get hit so I could come off!”

And when the time came to bat again, he was undefeated on 136 to follow his first innings 74 to underline the point.

Worcestershire’s season opener, against Kent at New Road, having been abandoned, controversially, without a ball being bowled, Moeen’s last appearance was for England in their World Twenty20 final defeat against West Indies in Kolkata. Assuming he is picked, his next match for them will be the first Test against Sri Lanka at Headingley.

In an exclusive interview with The Cricket Paper, he was happy to talk about both, about his sadness at the premature ending of the career of his long-time friend James Taylor and, as he approaches the start of his third summer in an England shirt, about his career so far.

 

Peter Hayter: England had a brilliant World T20 but how disappointing was it for it to end like that (with West Indies needing 19 from the final over to win, Ben Stokes conceded four straight sixes)?

Moeen Ali: Everybody was gutted, obviously. In the changing room afterwards, we were stunned. We just couldn’t believe it. We knew the Windies had the hitting power but I’d thought, with 19 needed off the last over, a couple of good balls and we should win. I spoke to a lot of people afterwards and there were mixed opinions as to who deserved to win. But I feel we did.

We didn’t bat well and if it had been a group game we might have lost easily. But we said 150 in a final is a proper score.

When Joe Root got those two wickets, including Chris Gayle, while we didn’t think we’d won, we knew we were in with a big chance and we bowled and fielded well to put us in a match-winning position. At the start of the final over I thought, well, they might score 12, 15 or 17.

But watching Ben Stokes and the ball going out of the ground was tough.

We all felt so sorry for him. It is the hardest job in T20 cricket, to bowl the last over in such a critical situation, and he’d done it brilliantly before.

But the great thing about how we were as a team is that no-one looked at Ben and said, or even thought, “He lost us the game”. We all knew we were in it together.

Looking back on it now, the experience will definitely make him better and stronger. It wouldn’t have felt like it at the time but it will stand him in good stead.

PH: How long did it take to get what happened out of your system?

MA: It took a while, thinking from time to time afterwards about what might have been – that we could have been the world champions. But slowly that became “never mind”.

We’ve achieved a lot in the last year or so with a young group, in all formats, we feel like we are getting better and it’s only going to get better still. This was a massive step in the right direction for England T20 cricket and the best thing about the tournament is that we feel people are excited about watching us play and enjoy watching us play.

When we got back from India I heard kids saying they want to be like Ben Stokes and Joe Root. There’s a real feeling that we have had an impact.

PH: Losing the final in such dramatic fashion was clearly a big blow but then the game was hit by the news that James Taylor had been forced to retire because of a heart condition. As a team mate and friend what goes through your mind when you hear something like that?

MA: I was reading it on the TV screen while watching Sky News. I read it three or four times and I just couldn’t comprehend it. I knew he wasn’t playing for Nottinghamshire in that game because he was ill with a virus of some sort so, when I saw the news, I couldn’t take in what I was reading.

He is going to be missed so much by Notts and England. Massively.

I’ve known him since we were together in the Worcestershire Academy and we travelled and played together and I count him as a good friend, an unbelievable player and such a nice guy. He worked so hard at the game, probably more than anyone and he wanted it so much. He was super-fit, in the top three of the England squad and I sometimes used to joke with him that he trained too hard.

I don’t know what he is going to do. I think he will miss the game a lot and I feel for him, but I’m sure, being the character he is, he will do something good.

PH: Does something like this put things back in perspective for you?

MA: Yes. When you heard about it suddenly the World T20 didn’t mean so much after all. People have tests in life and this is a test for him.

Personally, I know there is more to life than cricket and it can be taken away from you tomorrow. But it is a good thing they found the problem now rather than later.

PH: If selected, you are about to start your third summer playing for England. Things couldn’t have begun better for you, with runs on your debut, against Sri Lanka at Lord’s, a rearguard century in the next Test at Headingley and 19 wickets against India in the second half of the summer.  How do you assess your career so far?

MA: It has been the most amazing two years of my life. I love playing for England, I never take it for granted; never get complacent as regards selection.

The way everything went my way in that first summer – that can happen. But I never went overboard about it because I knew there would be a lot more tough days to come. This was international cricket. It was going to be hard for me.

Even now if I’ve made a contribution with bat or ball I don’t get too carried away.  I know I’m not the best player, though I feel I have more to show. I don’t see myself as a player who is going to have amazing stats for England and that doesn’t worry me.

If I try with everything I have and even if I’m not bowling or batting that well, I back myself that there are days when I can make a major contribution and potentially help win matches for England.

I feel I can play a big role in important situations, making a contribution when it matters. That is when I feel I get the best out of myself.

PH: Like you did against Australia last summer?

MA: Yes. I put on runs down the order and took some big wickets when the team needed something from me.

PH: You have been up and down the batting order from No1 to No.8. Is it frustrating that you haven’t been given a longer crack at holding down a top-order batting slot?

MA: I really enjoyed opening against Pakistan but I feel I let myself down. Apart from the first innings in the first Test when I got 35 in 131 balls, I didn’t play as I should have. I changed my game a bit and went out to try and be a bit more expansive.

Even though I made runs in that first series against Sri Lanka at No.6, I never scored consistently enough to nail down a place and I don’t mind going up and down the order, if the team needs me to, because it means I am playing and, in any case, runs at No.8 can be very important.

I probably won’t have the opportunity to score big hundreds from there but I don’t mind as long as I’m making a contribution.

PH: It seems that suits the team ethic and atmosphere created by Trevor Bayliss and Paul Farbrace, the feeling that what you produce is a real team effort and there is less pressure on individuals to perform or else.

MA: One hundred per cent. We have our superstars like Alastair Cook, Joe Root, Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Stokes, but then there are guys who chip away.

When I get to the end of my career I want to get to be able to look back and say I made some valuable contributions, to be looking at matches on TV and saying this is when I did this thing and this is where we won the game.

I try and perform as best I can every game. You accept you are going to have bad days – this is international cricket and it is not easy – but I want to keep enjoying it as much as I can, take the good days well and take the bad days well, as well.

This piece originally featured in The Cricket Paper, Friday April 29 2016