Moeen Ali to withdraw from PSL to focus on England ahead of World Cup

01 February 2023 , 16:51

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Moeen Ali is set to withdraw from the Pakistan Super League (Image: Alex Davidson/Getty Images)

Moeen Ali will put country before club and is set to withdraw from the Pakistan Super League so that he can concentrate on playing in Bangladesh.

The England white-ball vice-captain has had the busiest of schedules over the winter playing 36 games of cricket across three formats already.

Starting off with a T20 series in Pakistan, the 35-year-old has criss-crossed the globe playing in Australia where he won the T20 World Cup, in Abu Dhabi in the T10, in the UAE playing the ILT20, before landing in South Africa for the current ODI series and it is taking its toll.

With the 50-over World Cup a priority for the centrally contracted all rounder, he knows the tour to Bangladesh for three ODIs and three T20s is a crucial staging post on the road to India.

And he wants to enjoy a brief couple of weeks at home before he is back on duty for England and continuing his form in the middle order.

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Starring in the Pakistan Super League for Islamabad United before switching to Bangladesh would leave him in danger of cricketing burnout with another edition of the Indian Premier League with Chennai Super Kings to come.

Moeen has previously played in the PSL for Multan Sultans (ARIF ALI/AFP via Getty Images)

Moeen picks up around £800,000 for his efforts in the IPL, while he was picked up in the PSL for around £40,000, so he will not be missing out on too much cash in the grand scheme of things by pulling out.

The Pakistan Super League is a tournament close to Moeen’s heart with his family’s Pakistani heritage, but he wants to give himself the best chance of helping England to back-to-back 50 over World Cups and something had to give.

England team-mate Alex Hales has gone the other way by committing to his £145,000 Islamabad United contract and will miss the tour of Bangladesh, but he is not an England contracted player and this deal makes up a large part of his annual salary.

Dean Wilson