Moeen Ali tells England to ditch old players and ‘start again’ with exciting youngsters
PUNE — Moeen Ali pulled no punches in the wake of England’s latest World Cup horror show against Australia, admitting the one-day team needs a complete rebuild after this nightmare campaign is over.
Moeen, 36, is one of 11 players in the squad over the age of 30 and all of them have been selected in the past three games.
Loyalty to the core of the 2019 World Cup-winning squad has not worked, with Jos Buttler’s men rock bottom of the standings after six defeats in seven matches so far, with the latest by Australia on Saturday officially knocking the defending champions out of the tournament with two games yet to play.
Asked if the simple explanation for an abysmal World Cup and the end of a successful white-ball era that has included two major tournament wins, including last year’s T20 World Cup in Australia, was just the fact the players are getting old, Moeen said: “Yeah. I think it’s more everything good comes to an end and maybe the writing was on the wall and we just didn’t see it as players.
“I just think everything good comes to an end at some point. It’s very exciting because going forward we’ve got some really good players we know will come back into the squad, with that fearless playing, so that start we had in 2015 could start again.
“I think if I was in charge I’d play the younger guys. I’d just start again and I’m sure they’re going to do that. It’s common sense more than anything. You want that fearless approach again and it’s a great time to start again.”
Moeen, who travelled with the squad to Pune on Sunday ahead of England’s penultimate World Cup match against the Netherlands on Wednesday, admits he will probably not be part of that 50-over rebuild.
“I’m obviously going to speak to Jos and Motty [coach Matthew Mott] and see whether they want me around or whatever, I don’t know,” he said. “If they say, ‘look we’re going to go with younger players and start again’ then I’m more than happy. I get it, I understand and like I said, everything good comes to an end at some point.”
England have the likes of Phil Salt, Will Jacks, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Sam Hain and Rehan Ahmed waiting in the wings ready to come into the 50-over team for next month’s three-match series in the West Indies. They are also likely to form part of the rebuild as England look towards the 2027 World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
After England’s first-round exit at the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, five players who had not been part of that dire campaign – Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Sam Billings, Adil Rashid and Liam Plunkett – came straight into the XI for the team’s next ODI against New Zealand at Edgbaston the following summer.
Moeen expects a similar turnover after this tournament ends with England’s final group match against Pakistan in Kolkata on Saturday.
“I look at it as an exciting time going forward because there are so many good players, we know they are coming,” he said.
“Anything could happen, there are still another four years before the next World Cup. Like 2015, we were terrible in the World Cup and we started again, almost started fresh and it can be exciting going forward.”
