Moeen Munir Ali

A devout Muslim with distinctive beard, Moeen Munir Ali was born on 18 June 1987. He is a British Pakistani cricketer, who made his first-class debut, against Cambridge University in May 2005. He made 57 runs not out and bowled two overs for 15 runs in his innings. Moeen played that summer against Sri Lankan Under-19s and made 52 runs not out in the first innings and 100 not out in the second innings from only 56 balls and claimed seven wickets in the final ‘Test’.

Moeen signed for Warwickshire aged just 15, hitting a half-century for the county's Second XI a few days before his 16th birthday. After more games at this level in 2004, and a first outing for England Under-19s against their Bangladeshi counterparts he spent the succeeding winter playing for the Under-19s on their tour of India. He won Warwickshire's NBC Denis Compton Award in both 2004 and 2005.

He played county cricket for Warwickshire before moving to Worcestershire after the 2006 season. He was selected for the 2006 Under-19 Cricket World Cup, which was held in Sri Lanka. Moeen was immediately promoted to captain by the coach. He made three half-centuries in the tournament, and took seven wickets.

Ali got a few more opportunities for his county in 2006, playing his first List ‘A’ games. The first of these came against Derbyshire, where he claimed his maiden first-team wicket. He also took his first wickets in first-class cricket, and his first three victims were all Test players Stuart Law, Dominic Cork and Dave Mohammed. With the bat he scored 68 on his County Championship debut against Nottinghamshire and then equalled that score against Durham.

At the end of the 2010 season Worcestershire secured promotion to the first division of the County Championship. After he was overlooked by the England Lions and England Performance Programme at the end of the 2010 English season, Moeen opted to play club cricket in Bangladesh at the suggestion of Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan. Shakib played for Worcestershire as their overseas player in 2010 and the link with the club led to Moeen representing Mohammedan Sporting Club in the Ispahani Premier Division.

During the 2011 season Moeen spent three weeks as Worcestershire's acting captain while the usual club captain, Daryl Mitchell was injured. Though he had captained England Under-19s, it was the first time he filled the role for his county. As he was inexperienced, Moeen approached senior players Solanki and Ben Scott for advice.

In Worcestershire's first season back in the first division, Moeen scored 930 runs in the County Championship, making him the club's second-highest run scorer in the competition behind Solanki. On the back of his performances for Worcestershire, Moeen was included in the 13-man England Development squad which trained in late 2011.

Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal was Worcestershire's overseas player for a short time in 2011 and while at the club encouraged Moeen to try bowling the doosra. In February 2012, before the start of the English season, Worcestershire's director of cricket Steve Rhodes commented Moeen's doosra is not too difficult to pick at the moment but he's learning a few tricks and he’s got other things up his sleeve.

After the departure of former England international Vikram Solanki at the end of the 2012 season Moeen was handed a new 5 year contract. His patch of form including five consecutive 50s saw he called up to the England Lions where he scored 61 runs against Australia with many calling for him to be selected for the full side.

He was awarded county cricket's MVP award beating Samit Patel on the final day of the season and was also named PCA player of the year. Moeen was also called up to the England development squad ahead of their Australian Ashes tour.

Moeen was included in the English Squad for the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh. Making his ODI debut against the West Indies on 28 February 2014, he scored 44 runs before being dismissed and took his maiden ODI wicket.

His cousins, Kabir Ali and Kadeer Ali, also play first-class cricket for Lancashire and Gloucestershire respectively, while his brother Omar has played in the Minor Counties Championship for Herefordshire.