Moeen Ali

Player Facts

Team

Balkh Zwanan

Draft category

Platinum

Draft pick

Second overall

Born

18 June 1987, Sparkhill, Birmingham

Height

6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)

Batting

Left hand

Bowling

Right-arm off break

Role

All-rounder

International

England, 2014–2024

APL Career

Moeen Ali was the second Platinum selection of the APL 2026 draft. Team Balkh took the England all-rounder at the players' draft in Dubai on 3 November 2026, for $100,000, the highest price of the five categories. He joins a Balkh side captained by Afghan Icon Ibrahim Zadran, with Mickey Arthur as head coach and Tillakaratne Dilshan as mentor, alongside AM Ghazanfar, Gulbadin Naib, Qais Ahmad, Luke Wood, Muhammad Waseem and Thomas Moores.

He did not play in the first APL season in 2018. He was not in any of the five squads that year, so his APL career starts in 2026. The season starts on 27 December 2026 in the UAE.

APL career stats

The 2026 season has not started, so there are no APL figures for him yet. He did not play in the 2018 season, so there is no 2018 row below.

What could not be verified: his exact IPL bowling aggregate, his exact 2025 IPL figures beyond the reported 6 matches, and whether he will feature in The Hundred 2026 as a wildcard. Those are marked To be confirmed rather than estimated.

Season-by-season performance

Notable performances

Playing style and strengths

He bats left-handed in the middle order and bowls right-arm off break. He is a genuine all-rounder who changes games with either skill. He attacks with the bat (his ODI century against the West Indies came off 53 balls) and he bowls a full repertoire, including the doosra he worked on with Saeed Ajmal at Worcestershire. His best figures in both disciplines came in Test cricket: 155 not out with the bat and 6 for 53 with the ball.

He is also a leader. He captained Worcestershire to their first T20 Blast title in 2018, led Birmingham Phoenix in the first four seasons of The Hundred, and captained England in T20Is — the first Asian-origin cricketer to lead England in any format since Nasser Hussain. He is one of only 16 players with 200 Test wickets and 3,000 Test runs.

Records and milestones

• Test hat-trick v South Africa at The Oval, July 2017 — first by an England spinner since 1938–39, first ever in a Test at The Oval.
• 25 wickets and 250 runs in the 2017 South Africa series — the only player ever to do that in a four-Test series.
• Fifth-fastest to 2,000 Test runs and 100 wickets (38 matches).
• First England player since Ian Botham to score a Test fifty and take ten wickets in the same match (Lord's, July 2017).
• Second-fastest ODI century by an Englishman: 53 balls v West Indies, September 2017.
• 200 Test wickets and 3,000 Test runs — one of 16 players to reach both.
• World Cup winner with England in 2019 and the T20 World Cup in 2022.
• Captained Worcestershire to their first T20 Blast title, 2018.
• First Asian-origin cricketer to captain England in T20Is (8 September 2020).
• OBE in the 2022 Birthday Honours.
• Balkh Zwanan's Platinum pick, second overall in the APL 2026 draft.

Career outside APL

He signed for Warwickshire at 15 and made his first-class debut in May 2005, then moved to Worcestershire in 2007, where he spent 15 seasons. His breakthrough came in 2013, when he averaged 62 in Division Two, made 1,375 runs, the most in first-class cricket that season, and was named county MVP and PCA Player of the Year. He captained Worcestershire to their first T20 Blast title in 2018.

His England debuts all came in 2014: ODI against the West Indies in February, T20I in March, and Test against Sri Lanka at Lord's in June, where he made his maiden Test century in the second Test. His first Test five-for followed against India that summer, 6 for 67 at the Ageas Bowl, and England won the series 3–1. He was in the squads that won the 2019 Cricket World Cup and the 2022 T20 World Cup.

His best year was 2017. Against South Africa he took a hat-trick at The Oval, the first by an England spinner in almost 80 years, and finished the series with 25 wickets and 250 runs — a feat no player had managed in a four-Test series. He retired from Test cricket in September 2021, came out of retirement for the 2023 Ashes when Jack Leach was injured, took his 200th Test wicket against Steve Smith, and retired from Tests again at the end of the series. He announced his international retirement on 8 September 2024.

In franchise cricket he played for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, winning the title with Chennai in 2021 and 2023, and for Kolkata Knight Riders in 2025. He captained Birmingham Phoenix in the first four seasons of The Hundred, and played in the BPL, CPL and PSL, including a Platinum pick for Multan Sultans in 2020. In January 2026 he reversed his retirement from county cricket to sign for Yorkshire for the T20 Blast, his third county.

In T20 cricket he has played 420 matches, scoring 7,792 runs and taking 271 wickets, with a top score of 121 not out in the Vitality Blast (January 2026).

Teams played for in APL

• 2026 – Balkh Zwanan

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