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England will have to do without Moeen Ali as they try to rebound from their beating in Test 2 against India, after captain Joe Root revealed that the off-roader had opted out of the rest of the series.
The 33-year-old made his test comeback after 18 months in Chennai, taking eight wickets and achieving the highest score of the game’s tourists with 43 in the fourth inning.
He wasn’t consistently at his best, but he had the ability to conjure up special deliveries, most memorable when he fired local captain Virat Kohli with a ripper on the first morning, and his six-hit prowess delivered some of the biggest positives. from a 317 run of an otherwise daunting loss.
But as they go to the day / night test in Ahmedabad with the series tied 1-1, Moeen will head home having taken the rest period offered to all multi-format players this winter.
Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Mark Wood and Sam Curran have been given similar breaks during this series of six consecutive tests and Moeen has now seized the opportunity to leave the restrictive environment of the bubble.
His situation is unique among that group in that he tested positive for Covid-19 upon arrival in Sri Lanka last month and has since been forced to spend a combined 20 days in hotel isolation due to quarantine requirements. The fact that he is returning for the Twenty20 series, which begins four days after the end of the final test, and that he also hopes to participate in the Indian Premier League only serves to further complicate the issue.
“Moeen has chosen to go home. Obviously, it has been a very difficult tour for him, ”said Root. “As we mentioned at the beginning [of the winter), if players feel like they need to get out of the bubble, then that’s been an option. It is really important that we stand by that. That decision has been made. Hopefully he feels better for it. With Moeen it wasn’t about asking if he wanted to stay, it was a decision; he had chosen.
“Of course we wanted as many players available for as long as possible, but you also want them to be very comfortable here and for Mo, he obviously wants to be at home with his family and we completely understand that.
“If you look at this tour, it’s been a really difficult one for him, having Covid, being in his room for such long periods of time, and I think we’ve come to a point where he wants to get out. I’m sure it wasn’t an easy decision for him, but it’s one we completely respect and understand.”
England have been admirably outspoken about their commitment to getting players off the treadmill, a manifest attempt to nurture mental well-being at a time of great uncertainty and unprecedented control over their movements.
But there is a growing sense that the flexibility of allowing such movement on and off the team (Wood and Bairstow are back for Test 3 having recently returned from England) is creating an unwieldy environment.
Root, whose job it is to bring things together on the pitch, said: “It’s tough, it’s challenging, but it’s also everything right now.
“In these times, with Covid, with a bubble life, with the amount of cricket we have and trying to take everything into account, it is difficult. We just have to make sure we get the best out of the players that are here. My job is to manage the squad of players we have and I’m trying to do the best I can.
“We are one in a very exciting series, with two games in a new stadium and a pink ball game on the way. We really want to get caught up in it. “
