'Everything Good Comes To An End' - Moeen Ali On England's Era-Closing World Cup
Moeen Ali speaks on England's disaster World Cup (AP Photo)
Moeen Ali spoke with honesty on England's disastrous ICC World Cup 2023 campaign after another painstaking loss to Australia in Ahmedabad stretched his team's losing streak by five matches and crashed them entirely out of the semifinal contention.
The experienced spin allrounder deemed it the end of an era for the defending world champions, who have endured a horrific run to lose six of their seven league-stage encounters and are placed 10th in the marquee competition with two further matches to spare against Netherlands and Pakistan.
Featuring eight of the players part of the successful 2019 campaign at home, England drowned to their worst fate in an ICC tournament since their pathbreaking transformation into a mighty 50-overs outfit, being exposed with an overly-attacking brand of play in varying and testing Indian conditions.
It didn't help that England arrived with minimal One-Day preparations on board, playing T20Is extensively at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, and therefore failed to showcase a rounded and flexible 50-over game required to withstand the pressure and the challenge of a World Cup campaign.
Moeen Ali On England's Era-Ending World Cup Run
Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Moeen said "maybe the writing was on the wall" but England's senior pros, including him, failed to grasp it and react accordingly. "Everything good comes to an end," he stressed. "Maybe the writing was on the wall, and we just didn't see it as players."
Multiple England players have looked woefully short of time in the 50-over format for this World Cup, including their great anchor Joe Root, key to instilling solidity to an aggressive batting unit and functioning of the entire lot of attacking batters, who played just 16 innings between the two editions and has made only 188 runs in seven matches in India.
Moeen also indicated he will be contemplating his future in the ODI format after making just 83 runs in four innings and taking no wickets. The veteran cricketer, who is on a one-year central contract, will be discussing plans with coach Matthew Mott and Jos Buttler after departing home.
"I'm obviously going to speak to Jos and Motty and see what they want from me, whether they want me around or whatever," Moeen said.
"I don't know. If they say, 'look we're going to go with younger players and start again' then I'm more than happy. I get it, I understand… everything good comes to an end at some point."
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