England allrounder to miss the final two Tests of the Indian tour as part of his pre-planned break from the Test 'bubble'
Moeen Ali to return home, miss final two Tests
Moeen Ali will fly home to be with his family and will miss the final two Tests against India in Ahmedabad as part of England's rotation policy.
The England allrounder took eight wickets and scored 49 runs in the second Test in Chennai, which India won by 317 runs to level the four-match series 1-1 earlier in the day.
Moeen, who had tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the Sri Lanka series last month, felt he had spent enough time in a biosecure "bubble", England skipper Joe Root said.
"Moeen has chosen to go home. He obviously feels he wants to be with his family and we have to respect that," Root said.
"It's been a tough tour for him. It's come to a point where he feels he needs to get out of the bubble. I'm sure it wasn't an easy decision."
Moeen is set to return to India to join the white-ball squad ahead of the Twenty20 leg of the tour beginning March 12.
England, who will play up to 19 Tests in the space of 12 months including tours of Sri Lanka, India and Australia for an Ashes campaign, have introduced a rotation policy that has seen the likes of Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes miss Test matches to combat 'bubble fatigue'.
The ECB's selection chief, Ed Smith, justified the ploy ahead of the current Indian tour, saying: "We are being pragmatic, the pragmatism being if you keep people in a bubble unchanged for three months and ... expect them to play every game in every format, they will not be able to play to their best."
In other squad news for England, fast bowler Jofra Archer, who missed the second Test due to an elbow injury, is set to return for the crucial third Test while batsman Jonny Bairstow and pacer Mark Wood are also back in the squad after being rested for the first two matches.
Top-order batsman Zak Crawley also returns to the squad having recovered from a wrist injury and fast bowler James Anderson has been included too.
The third test, a day-night contest, will be played at Ahmedabad's Sardar Patel Stadium from February 24.