Moeen Munir Ali (born 18 June 1987) is an English cricketer of Pakistani descent. He is a left-handed batsman and off-spin bowler who played county cricket for Warwickshire before moving to Worcestershire after the 2006 season. He won Warwickshire's NBC Denis Compton Award in both 2004 and 2005.
Career
Warwickshire
Ali signed for Warwickshire aged just 15, hitting a half-century for the county's Second XI a few days before his 16th birthday.[1] After more games at this level in 2004, and a first outing for England Under-19s against their Bangladeshi counterparts he spent the succeeding winter playing for the Under-19s on their tour of India. 2005 saw Ali make his first-class debut, against Cambridge University in May. He impressed with the bat, making 57 not out in his only innings, and sent down two overs for 15 runs. Playing that summer against Sri Lankan Under-19s,
he starred in the final "Test" by making 52 not out and 100 not out
(the latter innings from 56 balls) and claiming seven wickets. He was
then selected for the 2006 Under-19 Cricket World Cup, which was in fact held in Sri Lanka, being immediately promoted to captain by coach Andy Pick. He made three half-centuries in the tournament, and took seven wickets.
Ali got a few more opportunities for his county in 2006, playing his first List A games. The first of these came against Derbyshire, where he dismissed Steffan Jones
to claim his maiden first-team wicket. He also took his first wickets
in first-class cricket, and his first three victims were all Test players: Stuart Law, Dominic Cork and Dave Mohammed. With the bat he scored 68 on his County Championship debut against Nottinghamshire, then equalled that score against Durham. Ali's opportunities were somewhat limited, however, and Alex Loudon
took his place in the side. In July 2006, with the expiry of his
Warwickshire contract mere months away, Ali brushed off rumours of a
move to Worcestershire, saying "I don't know anything about it",[2]
but in September it was announced that Ali would indeed be leaving to
join that county. The player himself said that he had been "impressed"
by Worcestershire and felt it gave him the best prospects of furthering
his career.[3]
Worcestershire
He made his debut for Worcestershire in their ten-wicket win over Loughborough UCCE on 25 April 2007, but had a rather poor game, returning 0–92 off 16 overs and being dismissed for 12 in his only innings.
Ali's highest first-class score of 250, scored against Glamorgan at New Road, featured a partnership of 316 with Jack Shantry.[4]At the end of the 2010 season Worcestershire secured promotion to the first division of the County Championship.[5]
After he was overlooked by the England Lions and England Performance
Programme at the end of the 2010 English season, Moeen opted to play
club cricket in Bangladesh at the suggestion of Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan.
Shakib played for Worcestershire as their overseas player in 2010 and
the link with the club led to Moeen representing Mohammedan Sporting
Club in the Ispahani Premier Division.[6]
2011 Season
During the 2011 season Moeen spent three weeks as Worcestershire's acting captain while the usual club captain, Daryl Mitchell
was injured. Though he had captained England Under-19s, it was the
first time he filled the role for his county. As he was inexperienced,
Moeen approached senior players Solanki and Ben Scott for advice.[7]Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal was Worcestershire's overseas player for a short time in 2011 and while at the club encouraged Moeen to try bowling the doosra.[8]
Moeen had to wait until July before registering his first century of
the season, and his first since September the previous year.[9] His innings of 158 runs from 244 balls against Somerset was in vain as Worcestershire succumbed to an innings defeat.[10] The following month Moeen twice scored a century in the Clydesdale Bank 40 only for Worcestershire to lose, against Sussex and the Netherlands.[11][12] In the first match against Sussex he passed his previous best score of 136 in List A cricket, scoring 158 runs from 92 balls.[11]
In Worcestershire's first season back in the first division, Moeen
scored 930 runs in the County Championship, making him the club's
second-highest run scorer in the competition behind Solanki. Moeen
average 33.21 runs per innings and scored a single century.[13]
On the back of his performances for Worcestershire, Moeen was included
in the 13-man England Development squad which trained in late 2011.[14]
2012 Season
In February 2012, before the start of the English season, Worcestershire's director of cricket Steve Rhodes
commented "[Moeen's doosra is] not too difficult to pick at the moment
but he's learning a few tricks and he’s got other things up his
sleeve ... It’s a work in progress".[8] His cousins, Kabir Ali and Kadeer Ali, also play first-class cricket for Lancashire and Gloucestershire respectively, while his brother Omar has played in the Minor Counties Championship for Herefordshire.
2013 Season
After the departure of former England international Vikram Solanki at
the end of the 2012 season Ali was handed a new 5 year contract.[15]A purple patch of form including five consecutive 50s saw Ali called
up to the England Lions where he scored 61 runs against Australia[16] with many calling for him to be selected for the full side. Moeen averaged 62 in Division 2, totalling 1375 runs altogether - the
highest of any batsmen in first class cricket and finished with 4
centuries and 8 fiftys as well as 28 wickets. He was awarded county
cricket's MVP award[17] beating Samit Patel on the final day of the season and was also named PCA player of the year.[18] Ali was also called up to the England development squad ahead of their Australian Ashes tour.
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