All-rounder will be Joe Root’s deputy against
India at OvalMoeen promoted in absence of Ben Stokes and Jos ButtlerTwo matches and barely three weeks after his recall from the Test wilderness to which he had been exiled for more than two years, Moeen Ali will face India at the Oval on Thursday as England’s vice-captain. His assimilation from the outer margins to the heart of the team has been startlingly rapid, a process the 34-year-old described with typically pleasing spin as demonstrating “the beauty of sport.”
It also, as Moeen admitted, demonstrated that the team has been deprived of several key players. With Ben Stokes taking an extended leave of absence to focus on his mental health and Jos Buttler missing Thursday’s match to attend the birth of his second child, in captaincy terms Moeen is very much England’s third choice second choice. But despite contributing only 48 runs and four wickets across the last two matches his influence on the team has been obvious.