Moeen Ali named England's vice-captain for Ireland ODI series

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has named the all-rounder Moeen Ali the vice-captain of the ODI team for the upcoming Ireland series. The three-match series is set to commence on July 30 behind closed doors. The squad for the contest is yet to be announced with the 24-man group already training since July 16.

The squad will be finalised next week after two intra-squad matches and a warm-up match between England Lions and Ireland. As far as Moeen is concerned, he comes into the equation as the likes of Joe Root, Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes are the part of the Test team and are unlikely to play the ODIs.

The Test series against the Caribbeans will end only on July 28, and they are due to face Pakistan a week later on August 5. However, Moeen Ali has been a vital cog of the ODI team over the last few years only to lose his place during the World Cup due to his poor form. This is an excellent chance for him to prove his mettle as Eoin Morgan’s deputy during the series.

Despite playing 102 One-Day Internationals for England, the pressure will be on the 33-year-old in this series thanks to his string of low scores in the last few ODIs. He has also played only a solitary ODI since the World Cup which came in February against South Africa. 

England likely to give a chance to new players for the ODI series

Meanwhile, with the preferred ODI players busy playing Tests, the selectors are likely to give a chance to some new players in the series against Ireland. The ongoing pandemic has led to the team playing both the formats simultaneously. The three ODIs are scheduled to be played on July 30, August 1 and August 4 respectively.

England are scheduled to face Australia in three ODIs and as many T20Is and reportedly, the series is set to begin in the first week of September. Though it will be interesting to see if the likes of Root, Stokes and Buttler return as the Test series against Pakistan will be concluded by then.