England's ace all-rounder Moeen Ali returned for the Ashes 2023 after calling it quits to Test cricket in 2021. England's team management requested Moeen to make a comeback to the Test fold for the fierce Ashes battle against Australia which is on display now at Edgbaston. Moeen came in as Jack Leach who suffered an injury and was not able to join the squad for the Ashes 2023.
Although Moeen couldn't do much with the bat in England's first innings in which he scored just 18 runs. However, England rode on Joe Root's brilliant unbeaten century to post 293/8 before Ben Stokes declared their innings. Moeen, who couldn't fire with the bat, did chip in with the ball and removed two important wickets for England on Day 2. Moeen dismissed the dangerous looking Travis Head (50) and Cameron Green (38) to end his 650-day wait for his Test wicket.
But on Day 3, things didn't pan out well for the star spinner as he suffered a cut on his finger, seemingly from the friction of the seam when bowling with the new ball. After 18 overs Moeen was brought into the attack with the second new ball which was only nine year old. But shortly Moeen was seen spraying his hand in the outfield and later he had to go off the field to receive treatment.
The star offie encoutered a similar issue during the 2017/18 Ashes. His preparations for the series were hampered by a side injury, which prevented him from bowling in any of England’s warm-up games.
Moeen bowled a total of 33 overs and returned with a bowling figure of 2/147 which also included a stunning dismissal of Cameron Green who had no clue to England's ace spinner's spin wizardry. England ended up reducing Australia to 386 despite Usman Khawaja's brilliant 141.
Ben Stokes-led side are now reeling at 28/2 before rain halted the Day 3's play. It will be interesting to see whether Moeen will come to bat in England's second innings and further help them defend a target with the ball as well.
Earlier in the match, the all-rounder was been fined 25 per cent of his match fees. When England was bowling during the first innings against Australia and he was fielding in the 89th over of the innings, Moeen can be seen applying cream on his hand. He was using this cream to dry his hands. But when this action was seen as a breach by the ICC, who then looked into the substance. Despite finding it to be not in violation of their rules, the fact that Moeen had not informed the right officials was seen as a breach of Article 2.20 of the ICC Code of Conduct.
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