Moeen Ali has credited his T20 century against Birmingham Bears as a catalyst to his England recall after being awarded the PCA Player of the Month for August.
The 31-year-old produced a phenomenal month with bat and ball which led to his first Test Match appearance of the summer and leading Worcestershire to the Vitality Blast Finals Day.
Moeen follows in the footsteps of Tom Bailey, Keaton Jennings, Heino Kuhn and Liam Livingstone in being voted Player of the Month in 2018.
The all-rounder received 61.2% of the public vote from supporters on a poll conducted on the PCA and Sky Sports online platforms. Kent’s Joe Denly came in second place with 15.2% of the vote with Somerset’s Jamie Overton receiving 14.7% and Benny Howell of Gloucestershire 8.9%.
The shortlist was produced via the PCA Most Valuable Player Rankings according to domestic cricket, some achievement for Moeen who finished the month by playing for England and winning the MVP Man of the Match against India.
The Worcestershire man was the leading MVP points scorer in August with 174 to back up the public’s decision to award him the August accolade.
“I’m very pleased, thank you to everybody who voted for me,” said Moeen.
“It was great to be back in county cricket and score some runs which got me back into the England team which was great.
“I loved it (the captaincy), especially the T20. It was a role I was given at the end of last season and it’s something we have thrived on and we have ended up being at Finals Day which is fantastic.
“I then captained the Champo game with a couple of injuries to the captain and I have loved it. It has given me something to look forward to and a goal to go back and win games.”
No player has secured more MVP points in one calendar month in 2018 than Moeen which was largely made possible due to a double century and eight wickets in the aforementioned County Championship victory over Yorkshire. That one game alone produced 81 points for Moeen, again, a record for domestic cricket in 2018.
The all-rounder captained the Pears in all of his six games in August, winning five which included smashing 115 off 56 balls against Birmingham in the Blast and helping guide them to Finals Day.
“It was my first century in T20 cricket and it was nice to go and win a game against our local rivals, Birmingham Bears and to win the game was most important but that gave me the confidence to go forward and the form I needed to get back into the England team,” said Moeen.
“Representing your country coming of the back of good form is always the best thing possible, the timing has just been right for me. It was nice to go back to county cricket for a month and put some performances together with the bat and ball to get back where I want to be.
“To win the game and to play a big role in it was fantastic for me and its always something you dream of. You appreciate where you are sometimes being out of the team.
“Obviously looking forward to the Test Match and then Finals Day is something we are looking forward to as a group of guys as we have never done that before and we are going to go out and do our best.”
To view the video of Moeen’s reaction click here.
To view the Overall MVP Rankings click here.
