Wholesale changes on the cards for England: Moeen

Mohammad Abdullah, Senior Sports Reporter

Star all-rounder Moeen Ali hopes that after the dismal performance of England at the 2023 ODI World Cup big changes are on card.

England, who were the defending champions, crashed out of the World Cup before the knock-out stages. They came into the showpiece event as the firm favorites but failed to live up to their expectations.

“It was a very disappointing performance by us. We failed to deliver in every aspect of the game. We did not play to our potential. I hope there will be some big changes in the England team,” said Moeen, who was speaking on the sidelines of a press conference in Dubai ahead of the Abu Dhabi T10.

England got their campaign off to a disastrous start against 2019 runners-up New Zealand. They failed to get over the bad start and kept on slumping to new lows as they were beaten by even Afghanistan.

Ben Stokes, who came out of retirement to help England defend the title was injured in the first few matches but even his return to the playing eleven did not bring in change in the fortunes of the England team.

Moeen is the captain of Morrisville Samp Army franchise, which is one of the eight teams, who will participate in the tourney. Abu Dhabi T10 will get under way from Nov.28 at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. A total of eight teams will battle it out for the top honours.

Abu Dhabi T10 is one its kind of tournament in the world. It is shortest-format league of cricket, which is sanctioned by ICC, affiliated with Emirates Cricket Board and organized under the patronage of Abu Dhabi Cricket Council.

Defending champions Deccan Gladiators and New York Strikers, will get the ball rolling in the opening game of the tournament.

Apart from the two teams, Northern Warriors, Morrisville Samp Army, Delhi Bulls, Team Abu Dhabi, Bengal Tigers and Chennai Braves are also part of the T10 cricket tournament. The tournament will run for 12 days from Nov.28-Dec.9.

After the completion of the preliminary round, the final top-four teams will qualify for the play-offs. Qualifier 1 will witness top two teams take on each other on Dec.8, 2023 whereas the third and fourth team will play the Eliminator match.

The winner of the Eliminator will play the loser of Qualifier 1 for a place in the final while the winner of Qualifier 1 will directly move into the title showdown.

Samp Army who had finished on the second spot in the 2022 edition of the tournament will start their campaign against Northern Warriors in the second match of the opening day.

“We had missed out on the last occasion. We came agonizingly close to winning the title but missed it by a whisker. We are confident of putting up a better performance this time around and emerge victorious,” stressed Moeen.

“We have a very strong squad. There are hard-hitting batsmen, ferocious pacers and wily spinners. It is a well-balanced squad. I think we stand a great chance of winning the title,” added the England all-rounder, who came out of retirement earlier this year to play in the Ashes against Australia.

The Ashes ended in a 2-2 draw after England put up a stellar show to stage a miraculous comeback in the series after losing the first two matches. Moeen played a crucial role in the last match of the series by taking three wickets.

Samp Army owner Ritesh Patel said they are into expansion mode.

“We are expanding our franchise. We are already having teams in the US and Zimbabwe version of T10 tournaments. We are exploring more opportunities to spread our wings,” he explained.