Moeen Ali agrees white ball decision is right one

Both Adil Rashid and Alex Hales have come to the decision to solely focus on limited-overs cricket otherwise known as white ball cricket. This is a move that has been backed by England all-rounder Moeen Ali, who feels that the pair have made a good decision. Rashid and Yorkshire announced that he would only play white ball cricket during 2018 and Hales signed a limited-overs deal with Nottinghamshire which runs for the next two years.

Moeen Ali feels it is England who will benefit from players exclusively focusing on white ball cricket going forward. He has spoken about how England will have “real specialists” due to the switch and that “it’s something a lot of players will probably do further down the line.”

So far, leg-spinner Adil Rashid has appeared in 59 ODIs and 28 T20 tournaments. He has 10 caps for England to his name as things stand, with the last of those coming against India back in December 2016. Hales, on the other hand, has 58 ODIs under his belt, with 52 T20 appearances and 11 England caps. He last played for the Three Lions in August 2016.

Even though both have been absent from England set up for a while, it’s the move towards focusing solely on white ball cricket that could see them force their way back in. This view is shared by reputable betting sites, as a Unibet spokesman recently confirmed. This was also backed up by Moeen Ali who said that both players are capable of playing Test cricket, but that their ball skills will “improve immensely” if they exclusively focused on the one-day system.

Rashid’s decision to sign a white-ball only contract caused a huge stir when it was announced by both Yorkshire and the player. However, the 30-year-old explained that his heart was simply not in the red ball game and that he would be letting both the team and himself down by continuing to play. Rashid also explained that the move isn’t a “permanent thing” and that “It’s for this season, to see how it goes, how it unfolds and what happens, to see what my mind says and what my heart feels.”

Nasser Hussain has said that Adil Rashid and Alex Hales moving away from the red-ball game is concerning for first-class cricket going forward. However, with the pair being the first England players to do so, Hussain has not been surprised by their decisions but said “it reflects the changing face of international cricket at the moment. All of these franchises and domestic teams we have, they’re just making business decisions.”

Both Adil Rashid and Alex Hales, overlooked for the Ashes series, were included in the England ODI squad against New Zealand. Ben Stokes also made his comeback to the fold after being suspended in September in the run-up to the Three Lions’ failed Ashes campaign.