by “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in,” declared Michael Corleone in The Father. So it is Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid and Chris Woakes, who were left out in the ODI World Cup fallout, who are now called upon again as England figure out how to win another T20 World Cup.
Barely 12 hours after captain Jos Buttler announced that the Caribbean tour was part of “a new journey for this team”, the trio were training at Kensington Oval. It was an unfathomable sight. These faces, at the same time very new and quite old, are now responsible for rejuvenating the English tour of the West Indies.
Moeen, Rashid and Woakes were all key members of England’s golden generation of white-ball cricket, among the rare group that won both the 2019 ODI World Cup and the 2022 T20 World Cup. But they also have a combined age of 105. By the end of next year’s T20 World Cup, in June, Moeen will be 37, Rashid 36 and Woakes 35. Then, they will be accused of what they failed to do in June. India: defending its World Cup crown.
The presence of the trio in the Caribbean speaks to the paradox of the Buttler-Matthew Mott regime. For all the talk of building a new team – Mott declared “We just have to show a little patience and support them and support them” – the fate of the regime could depend on whether the old guard can encore one more delivered. The presence of Moeen, Rashid and Woakes in the West Indies shows that they are all prominent in England’s thinking to return here in six months for the T20 World Cup.
The four-year period leading up to the ODI World Cup – with the Champions Trophy essentially a stage post in that journey – prompts a clean break after the tournaments. England’s ODI side in the West Indies would have been rejuvenated even without their struggles in India.
In T20, knowing when to move on is all the more difficult. With only two years between each World Cup, the temptation to try to force another competition out of a player is much stronger. This is even higher for the 2024 T20 World Cup, which starts just 18-and-a-half months after England won the 2022 tournament at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Although England’s top players no longer play any 50-over cricket outside of the international game, opportunities abound on the global T20 circuit. And, if leagues sometimes feel like uncertainty as players retire, aging players aren’t just in demand for the name recognition they bring.
‘Old blokes win stuff’ has been a mantra on the T20 circuit for a long time. Chennai Super Kings were rushed as ‘father’s army’ in India Prison 2018, when they averaged 34 – but won the tournament. In 2016, West Indies became the oldest team in the T20 World Cup, and won the title. Experience tends to help players manage the complexities of T20 and keep their balance under pressure: recognizing the opportune time to target a particular ball or smaller boundary, for example.
In T20, there are still good reasons for the continued selection of the three. It’s barely four months since Woakes was the player of the series in the Ashes. After floundering in the early stages, he finished the World Cup with four fine performances in a row. Along with his new ball grip, Woakes’ batting ability at number eight also provides an important balance. With David Willey now retired from international cricket, there is no obvious alternative to replicate Woakes’ exact role.
For the first time since establishing himself for England in 2015, there is now a clear alternative to Rashid: Rehan Ahmed. An interesting subplot will be the rivalry between the two leg-spinners, 16 years apart, during the five-match T20 series. But England may not always have to choose between them. A combination of used wickets, and the versatility of the bowler and both left- and right-handers, means that Rashid and Ahmed could play alongside each other in the T20 World Cup.
Moeen’s choice is perhaps the most controversial. He had a far worse ODI World Cup than Woakes or Rashid, flying in and out of the side – despite his status as vice-captain – and making little impact with bat or ball: Moeen was 15.8 on the average with the bat in India, and 49.6 with the ball.
But Moeen’s world standing has long been higher in T20s than in the 50-over game. This year, he won his second IPL title in three seasons with Chennai Super Kings. More than his raw numbers, Moeen is valued at Chennai for the flexibility he brings – able to float up or down the order as needed, happy to turn away with the new ball and provide leadership support. It is similar to Moeen’s role when England won the T20 World Cup. The question now is whether, with Will Jacks able to fill a Moeen-like role with his spin – perhaps blocking in the top three – and Liam Livingstone providing power hitting and spin in the middle, yes Moeen still as important as England.
His retention as vice-captain, a position held in high esteem by Buttler, shows England’s continued faith; The sight of Moeen pinging balls over midwicket from the nets at Kensington Oval was a reminder that few batsmen are cleaner at their best. Now both he and England hope to witness the same spectacle in Tuesday’s T20 opener and beyond.
And so, with the focus on the tour as a way to develop the new generation, perhaps England’s most pressing need in the next fortnight is to decide whether the returning trio of world champions can double win the third world together yet.
