Moeen Ali, the England allrounder, has announced his retirement frominternational cricket at the age of 37. In an interview with the *DailyMail* published on Saturday, Ali confirmed his decision to step away fromthe sport after a long and successful career representing England. Born inBirmingham, Ali made his debut in 2014 and went on to play in 68 Testmatches, 138 One-Day Internationals (ODIs), and 92 Twenty20 Internationals(T20Is), with his final international appearance taking place in June.
Reflecting on his decision, Ali explained, “I’m 37 years old and didn’t getpicked for this month’s Australia series. I’ve played a lot of cricket forEngland. It’s time for the next generation, which was also explained to me.It felt the time was right. I’ve done my part.” Ali expressed that steppingaside now made sense as he had contributed significantly to England cricket.
Ali, the first cricketer of Asian origin to captain England in T20Is, hashad a distinguished career. He scored five centuries in Test cricket andthree in ODIs while taking 366 wickets across all formats. He was also partof England’s victorious squads in the 50-over World Cup in 2019 and the T20World Cup in 2022.
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In addition to these achievements, Ali holds the record for England’sfastest half-century in T20Is, reaching 50 runs in just 16 balls againstSouth Africa in 2022. Reflecting on his career, Ali expressed pride in whathe had accomplished, stating, “When you first play for England, you don’tknow how many games you are going to play. So to play nearly 300 … I knowthey were the best days of my life.”