Nasser Hussain picks Moeen Ali as England's player of the summer

English cricket is going through a lot of turmoil at the moment, courtesy their players’ ill behaviour off the field. From Ben Stokes‘ highly criticised incident to Jos Buttler’s bachelor party, English cricket has suffered major pushbacks in the recent few weeks. Among all these infamous and humiliating incidents, former English skipper Nasser Hussain has picked the disciplinarian Moeen Ali to get the tag of England’s player of the summer.

The all-rounder has delivered many spectacular performances for the Three Lions in the summer. In the third Test against South Africa at the Kennington Oval in London, his hat-trick proved to be a match-winner. Not only that, he has impressed with his all-round abilities in the recently concluded one-dayers against the Windies as well, for which he is the 49-year-old legend’s England’s player of the summer.

When Nasser was asked by Sky Sports to pick England’s best moment from the summer, he went for Ali’s Oval hat-trick. “I have gone for Moeen Ali. I could have gone for about 15 different Moeen moments because I think he has been the man of the summer for England with bat, ball, his character, everything he means to English cricket in so many different ways. His hat-trick at The Oval, against South Africa, which was secured on review when he had Morne Morkel lbw is my moment – I can’t believe it wasn’t given out initially.We panned to a lad in the crowd and he had his fingers crossed, so I thought that was a great moment,” the India-born player said.

Atherton opts for Crane as a backup

While Nasser might have gone all praise for Moeen, Michael Atherton feels Mason Crane should be picked to back him up. “The thing about Crane is that Moeen Ali is the No.1 spinner but he could be ill on the first morning at Brisbane, he could get a stomach upset, he could fall down the stairs or break his finger in the nets. Who then do you want as your back-up spinner to back to seamers up at Brisbane? Do you want Mason Crane? I’m not sure I would as captain,” the former English skipper said.