Ashes Test series | Only Stokes could get me back to Test cricket, says Moeen Ali

Moeen Ali said Ben Stokes was the only England captain who could have persuaded him to come out of Test retirement. A one-word message from Stokes, after first-choice spinner Jack Leach had been ruled out of all five Ashes Tests against Australia, was all it took to bring slow-bowling all-rounder Moeen back into England’s red-ball set-up.

Moeen Ali said Ben Stokes was the only England captain who could have persuaded him to come out of Test retirement.

A one-word message from Stokes, after first-choice spinner Jack Leach had been ruled out of all five Ashes Tests against Australia, was all it took to bring slow-bowling all-rounder Moeen back into England’s red-ball set-up.

And Moeen could now be set for a return to Test cricket at Edgbaston, in his home city of Birmingham, when the Ashes series starts on June 16.

“Stokesy messaged me with a question mark — ‘Ashes?’,” Moeen told reporters at Edgbaston on June 13.

Moeen said he had not heard the news about Leach, who has a back injury, and thought Stokes was joking.

“Then the news came through and I had a chat with him,” he said. “That was it. It’s the Ashes. To be part of it would be amazing.”

Moeen, who turns 36 on Sunday, last played Test cricket in September 2021.