Moeen Ali withdraws from IPL due to workload concerns

England all-rounder Moeen Ali has decided to opt out of playing in the forthcoming IPL season, barely a day after it was announced that he would be playing in the world’s premier T20 tournament. The decision comes in the wake of meetings held with Andrew Strauss, former skipper and the current director of the English cricket team. Strauss, it seems, had been concerned with the extent of commitments that Ali would have had to balance had he been a part of the IPL considering that England has quite a busy international schedule this year.

Despite this decision taken by Moeen, it is understood that there hadn’t been any pressure put on him by Strauss, who’d been upfront since the start that the final decision of playing or not playing in the IPL would be up to the 28-year old himself. But at the same time given that Moeen is an integral part of the English squad across all the playing formats, addressing the concerns thus became paramount for Strauss.

Strauss has previously suggested he was keen for England players to gain experience from such high-profile T20 tournaments. But given Moeen’s current selection in all three formats of the game, it was decided that a balance had to be made.

Moeen is understood to be happy with the decision to withdraw from the IPL and gratified that Strauss sees him as such an important part of England’s long-term plans. Though this announcement will be a disappointment for his fans and for the Mumbai Indians, who were vying to acquire him in the soon-to-be-held player auction, there aren’t any second thoughts in Ali’s mind regarding his decision to step away from the IPL.

England is currently playing its second of 17 Tests scheduled for 2016, with Moeen likely to play a prominent role in all of them. He is also likely to be included in the World T20 squad. After a long summer – broken from the winter’s tours only by the few weeks in April and May when the IPL will be contested – England head to Bangladesh in September and then, having moved on to India, do not return until a few days before Christmas.