Moeen Ali has agreed to return to the cauldron of the Ashes this summer after answering England’s call to face Australia in the five-Test men’s series that gets under way in his home city of Birmingham next Friday.
Faced with the shock emergence of a lower back stress fracture that ruled Jack Leach out of all five Tests over the next two months, England assessed their spin stocks and decided Moeen was the first-choice replacement. This comes despite the all-rounder retiring from Test cricket 18 months ago after 64 caps, 2,914 runs and 195 wickets.
