Moeen Ali spills the secret of his success after playing one of his most patient Test knocks

Moeen Ali, England’s new number three, played his slowest Test knock on the first day of the ongoing fifth Test at The Oval. He took a massive 167 balls to reach his half-century and denied the relentless Indian bowlers his wicket until the final session. But his batting made sure that this team stayed in contention and started strongly to keep the opposition worried. However, Ali himself has revealed the secret of how he came out of the rut after a poor winter.

Ali was one of the casualties as he didn’t perform decently in Ashes and on New Zealand tour following which he was dropped from the team for the home summer. He wasn’t the part of the squad for the Tests against Pakistan and though he returned for India series, it took the all-rounder four Test matches to make his first appearance. He made a rousing comeback and was named the Man of the Match in Southampton.

Suddenly, he was in the plans of the team and is now given an extended opportunity at number three only for the likes of Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow to play at their favourite positions.

What did he do?

Moeen Ali, after the barren winter, shut down all of his social media accounts and concentrated on his game after being axed from the team. But staying away from his phone helped him gather his thoughts and spend more time with the family which kept him in the good state of mind and eventually it worked for him. He slammed a double hundred for Worcestershire and took wickets in the same match to force his way back in the team.

When asked about the same in the press conference on Friday, he said, “I just felt like I spent so much time on there. You have family and kids, you get home and they want to play with you but you just end up on your phone. I caught myself doing that when my little one wanted a kickaround and I decided I’d had enough. It was a case of ‘can I live without it?’ I just feel sometimes that can take away communication and interaction. I was sick of it.”

Moeen was the second half-centurion of the innings and he stitched a crucial stand with Alastair Cook for the second wicket. But the middle-order crumbled and gave away the advantage.

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