{"id":304501,"date":"2023-06-05T23:44:58","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T23:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=304501"},"modified":"2023-06-06T00:58:52","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T00:58:52","slug":"englands-desperate-plea-to-retired-ashes-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=304501","title":{"rendered":"England's desperate plea to retired Ashes star"},"content":{"rendered":"

England<\/a> has issued a desperate SOS to retired spin bowler Moeen Ali<\/a> \ufeffless than two weeks out from the start of the Ashes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The hosts are reeling following frontline tweaker Jack Leach being ruled out of the five-Test series<\/a> due to back fractures suffered at the weekend.<\/p>\n

\ufeffWhile Leach is certainly no superstar – taking wickets at an average of 34.18 in his 35 Tests for England – his omission has highlighted a worrying dearth of slow bowlers at their disposal.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Kyrgios unleashes on 'absurd' ball kid furore<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Savage Roosters dismissal a 'slap in the face'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Brave' Russian booed for 'respectful' act at Roland-Garros<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

He was the only specialist spinner named in England's 16-man squad.<\/p>\n

Rehan Ahmed and Will Jacks\ufeff are considered potential future Test bowlers, but selectors have reached out to Ali, who's turning 36 this month, to play against Australia.<\/p>\n

Ali confirmed the approach to ESPN.<\/p>\n

\"England<\/p>\n

His last Test match was in September 2021 and while he's been playing white-ball matches still, he hasn't played first-class cricket \ufeffin almost two years.<\/p>\n

In 64 Tests for his country Ali has taken 195 wickets at 36.66\ufeff, although against Australia that average balloons out to a miserable 64.65.<\/p>\n

England fast bowler Stuart Broad sung Ali's praises in an interview with Sky Sports earlier this week.<\/p>\n

"We know Mo is a phenomenal cricketer and someone who would fit into (captain Ben) Stokes and Baz's (coach Brendon McCullum) philosophy beautifully," Broad said.<\/p>\n

"I don't know if he's being considered by the selectors or if he would consider red-ball cricket again. But he's a mighty fine cricketer."<\/p>\n

The Ashes series kicks off at Edgbaston on June 16.<\/p>\n

Before then, Australia takes on India in the World Test Championship final at The Oval beginning on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/em>For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

England has issued a desperate SOS to retired spin bowler Moeen Ali \ufeffless than two weeks out from the start of the Ashes. The hosts […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":304503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304501"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=304501"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304504,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304501\/revisions\/304504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/304503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=304501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=304501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=304501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}