I don’t know why but i have always struggled to take to Moeen, I guess it’s similar to what some people felt for David Gower (a bit before my time). A talented player who makes it look so easy when it works, but gets out in infuriating ways.

Good luck to him for England this, I hope it works out for him. He was definitely messed around by Root and I understood why he retired when he did. It does unfortunately really show the country’s dearth of quality with spin bowling though.

I wasn’t too fussed about him coming across for the T20 campaign and not paying anny attention to any franchise cricket I don’t know what his record was elsewhere. It seemed more of a marketing signing than a cricketing one.

He's a bit overrated. I find this England Test recall bizarre.

It’s a huge gamble for England, but I think it’s the correct call. Experience goes a long way in an Ashes series.

Any decision would have been a gamble but I agree that this is probably the least worst option.
As for Moeen being overrated, he does have some pretty good stats to back up his reputation - almost 30,000 runs and over 1,000 wickets in all formats.

I never said he was no good, I'm a fan, just a bit overrated. Some people do go on like he's Sobers though.

I’d phrase it as this is the option with the lowest odds of failure.
They know exactly what they’re getting. Whilst a longer shot might arguably be a better spinner; they know what to expect from Moeen, they know he knows what test and ashes cricket is about, and they’ve hedged their bet by knowing that he could come good with bat or ball.

Though I still can’t escape the feeling that if Dawson, Parkinson, Jacks, Ahmed or even someone like Briggs or Bess, was as good mates with Stokes as Moeen is, that they’d be in the side. And the test experience suddenly wouldn’t matter.

Thats a fair shout.

I just can't get the image of how bad Moeen was against Australia last time out of my head, they monstered him.

Moeen collects his OBE:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-12196493/Moeen-Ali-collects-OBE-services-cricket-day-hes-named-team-Ashes-Test.html