Former England cricket team all-rounder Moeen Ali believes that the current Pakistan fast bowlers are good but they are not the best in the world. In a recent interaction, Moeen called the trio of Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah talented but made it clear that when it comes to the best in the world, they are not at the top of the list. In a podcast alongside Adil Rashid, Moeen said that people with Pakistani backgrounds tend to claim that the pace trio is the best in the world but that is not the case. “There’s this perception, especially among people with Pakistani backgrounds, that Pakistan has the best seamers. I’m like, no. They’re good, but they’re not the best,” Moeen said.
“Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, and Haris Rauf are good. Don’t take me wrong. I am not calling them bad but they are not the best in the business at the moment,” he added.
Earlier, Moeen Ali opined that rule changes in the ODI format have made it the “worst format to play”, saying that the 50-over-game has “completely died outside of ICC Cricket World Cup and the Champions Trophy” due to batting-friendly rules of powerplay and two-ball rule.
Moeen was speaking to Talksport Cricket, as quoted by Wisden. Notably, England has not had the best time in ODIs recently, having massively fumbled on their ICC Cricket World Cup title defence in India back in 2023 with just three wins in nine matches. While they did huff and puff their way to the Champions Trophy somehow, they finished their campaign recently without any win in three matches.
Speaking on Talksport Cricket, Moeen said, “The format has almost completely died out, apart from World Cups and Champions Trophy. It is the worst format to play and I think there are many reasons for that.”
Moeen said that the rule to have one extra fielder inside the circle (a total of four fielders outside the 30-yard-circle, reduction from five earlier, introduced in 2012) has been “horrendous” as it is not easy to build pressure on batters because of that.
“I think the rules are terrible. To have that extra fielder in after the first powerplay, I think it is a horrendous rule for taking wickets, building any sort of pressure. Guys are averaging 60, 70 in ODI cricket now because of that. When you’re bowling at somebody and you put a little bit of pressure, he just reverse-sweeps and it is not even a single, it is a four. It is just there’s always that option available for the batters [to score],” said Moeen.
(With ANI inputs)
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