Moeen Ali hailed as England's 'most selfless player' after announcing retirement

Former captain Alistair Cook praises 'gutsy' all-rounder who played 298 times for his country

Moeen Ali has called time on his international career after playing play 68 Tests, 138 one-day internationals and 92 Twenty20s. AFP

Moeen Ali has been hailed as “the most selfless player to play for England” by his former captain Alastair Cook after the all-rounder announced his retirement from international cricket.

The 37-year-old, who retired from Test cricket for a second time after making an emergency comeback in the 2023 Ashes series, has called time on a career that saw him play 68 Tests, 138 one-day internationals and 92 Twenty20s.

Moeen is one of only five men to take 200 wickets and score 3,000 runs in Tests for England, the others being Ben Stokes, Ian Botham, Andrew Flintoff and Stuart Broad. He brought up both landmarks in successive Tests in last year's Ashes.

His 204 Test wickets are the third most a spinner has taken for England leaving him behind only Graeme Swann (255) and Derek Underwood (297).

He was also as part of the white-ball squads that won the 50-over World Cup on home soil in 2019 and the T20 World Cup in 2022.

“Moeen was probably the most selfless player to play for England,” said Cook, who ended his England career in 2015 as the fifth-highest run-scorer in Test history, to BBC Test Match Special.

“He would do anything the team required, probably to the hindrance of his career – he batted from one to eight.

“He was picked as a batter but the amount he developed his bowling was amazing. He was also much tougher than people realised. In clutch moments, he was a gutsy cricketer. He was one of the great teammates.”

Moeen's decision came after he was left out of the squad for England's upcoming white-ball series against Australia, which begins on Wednesday with a T20 in Southampton.

Matthew Mott was sacked as head coach of the limited-overs side last month – with Brendon McCullum now taking charge of all formats – after disappointing title defences in the ODI and T20 World Cups and the appetite for change continued with the removal of Moeen and Jonny Bairstow – two senior men sharing over 400 caps in the formats.

“I'm 37 years old and didn't get picked for this month's Australia series,” Moeen said in an interview with another former England captain, Nasser Hussein, in the Daily Mail.

“I've played a lot of cricket for England. It's time for the next generation, which was also explained to me. It felt 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 the proper cricket.

“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.”

Reflecting on his international career, Moeen said he was “especially” proud of taking 204 Test wickets, adding: “I'm also proud of getting five Test hundreds. It's only five, but it means a lot, especially when I was often down the order.”

He finishes with 6,678 runs, eight centuries, 28 fifties and 366 wickets for England across all formats. His final game in national team colours was the T20 World Cup semi-final loss to India in June.

On what his greatest moment was, he added: “Winning the Ashes [2015] and two World Cups was great, but from an individual point of view it was my Test hat-trick against South Africa at the Oval to win us the game. And I'm proud to have the fastest T20 50 for England [from 16 balls against South Africa in 2022].”

As for his future, Ali said he planned to continue playing franchise cricket, but would then like to stay involved in the game as a coach.

“Coaching is something I want to do – I want to be one of the best,” he said. “I can learn a lot from Baz [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.”