After watching how the KFC Big Bash League handed a new lease of life to fellow England spinner Adil Rashid, Moeen Ali has declared he’d love to follow in his close friend’s footsteps by playing in the tournament.
With 18 scalps, Rashid was BBL|05’s second-highest wicket taker and his economy-rate of 6.51 was the third-best among those with at least five wickets.
His accurate, flighted leg-breaks mixed with a deceptive wrong’un saw him become the Adelaide Strikers’ most-feared weapon with the ball.
The leg-spinner carried his superb form in the shortest format to play a key role in England’s World T20 campaign in India, where they finished as runners-up.
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Having witnessed the impact of an Australian summer on his teammate, Moeen believes a spell in the BBL could have similar benefits for his own game.
"I’d love to play,” he said of the BBL at the launch of its English equivalent, the T20 Blast.
"Obviously playing for England is the number one priority for me but if there’s time and there’s a team out there, I’d love to play in the Big Bash.
"I think it’d make a big difference to my game by playing and being exposed to that competition.
"It is hard to find time with our schedule the way it is.
"(But) I think we’ll see more and more English guys playing in these competitions once the time is freed up a bit more."
With England scheduled to play five Tests as well as limited-overs in India between November and January, Moeen may have to wait to see that desire fulfilled, however under Andrew Strauss and Trevor Bayliss, overseas domestic T20 leagues are now increasingly being viewed by the ECB hierarchy as development opportunities for their elite players.
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England’s Test tour of South Africa in December and January coincided with the BBL but Rashid, who’d played alongside Moeen in their preceding three Tests against Pakistan, was left out of the squad for the series against the Proteas.
With Moeen the incumbent spinner and the likelihood of playing two tweakers on South African pitches slim, Rashid was given the green light to play in Adelaide, under his Yorkshire coach Jason Gillespie.
Bayliss admitted the leg-spinner’s stint "could not have worked out any better", a sentiment shared by Rashid’s close pal.
"Adil absolutely loved it," Moeen said. "He spoke about how good the competition was and how well they get looked after.
"He said it was a really good competition and obviously the crowds in Australia are amazing – the support he got from the crowds was amazing.
"I know Adil definitely came back with more confidence. It’s not just he went out there and did really well, it’s the fact that he came as a (more) confident player.
"Playing a high standard of competition was good (for him) just before the T20 World Cup.
"When you get exposed and do well, you get a lot of more confidence from that than from being in the nets.”
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'Confidence' is a word mentioned a lot in England’s new era of limited-overs cricket.
Following their disastrous ODI World Cup campaign last year, England, now with coach Bayliss at the helm, have vowed to play more fearlessly.
And while their commitment to their new brand of cricket was evident in their aggressive approach with the bat during the WT20 – their successful run-chase of South Africa’s 229 in Mumbai being a shining illustration – self-assurance with the ball tends to be more difficult to measure.
Joe Root, the man who led that remarkable pursuit against the Proteas at the Wankhede Stadium with a rollicking 44-ball 83, suggests Rashid’s increased post-BBL confidence has been exemplified not just by a better command of his variations but also by a heightened tactical awareness.
"He gained a lot of confidence from the way he played over there,” Root said of Rashid.
"I think he was up there with the leading wicket-takers in the tournament and that’s what you want: guys to go out there and be under pressure as an overseas signing and do really well.
"And he did just that.
"He came back knowing exactly what fields he wanted, when to bowl what (delivery) and it looked like he improved a huge amount."
