Moeen Ali has come to the end of a demanding schedule of 17 Tests and five series in just nine months – and going forward the programme of five-day cricket for England is just as concentrated.
From May up until Christmas skipper Alastair Cook and his team will do battle in a further 14 Tests – three versus Sri Lanka and four against Pakistan during the domestic season and two in Bangladesh and five away to India between October and December.
Worcestershire all-rounder Moeen was absent from the opening Test against the West Indies in Antigua last April through injury.
But the 28-year-old has played every one since – two v West Indies, two v New Zealand, five v Australia, three v Pakistan and four v South Africa.
On top of that there has been a regular diet of ODIs and T20Is for the England players who are involved in all formats which includes Moeen.
Of the 17 Tests, Cook, Ben Stokes, Stuart Broad and Joe Root played in all 17 followed by Moeen (16), James Anderson (14), Ian Bell (13), Jos Buttler (12) and Jonny Bairstow (10).
England won seven, lost seven and drew three in that period but did achieve excellent series wins over Australia (3-2) and most recently the Proteas (2-1).
Moeen finished fifth in both the England batting and bowling averages against South Africa but did make important contributions in three of the four Tests.
His seven wickets in the first Test in Durban earned him the man of the match award and then his defiant stand with Jonny Bairstow on the final day of the second Test in Cape Town held up South Africa after a top order collapse.
Moeen then hit 61 during the fourth Test in Centurion to enable England avoid the possibility of having to follow on.
ENGLAND AVERAGES
BATTING
Bairstow Matches 4, Inns 7, Not Out 2, Runs 359, Highest 150* Average 71.80
Stokes 4, 7, 0, 411, 258, 58.71
Root 4, 8, 1, 386, 110, 55.14
Compton 4, 8, 0, 245, 85, 30.62
MOEEN ALI 4, 7, 3, 116, 61, 29.00
Taylor 4, 8, 1, 186, 70, 26.57
Cook 4, 8, 0, 184, 76, 23.00
Hales 4, 8, 0, 136, 60, 17.00
Woakes 2, 4, 0, 54, 26, 13.50
Broad 4, 5, 1, 51, 32*, 12.75
Anderson 3, 3, 2, 5, 5*, 5.00
BOWLING
Broad Matches, 4, Inns 7, Overs 139.1, Maidens 38, Runs 371, Wickets 18, Average 20.61
Finn 3, 5, 90.4, 16, 287, 11, 26.09
Stokes 4, 7, 113.1, 15, 350, 12, 29.16
Anderson 3, 5, 118.2, 29, 301, 7, 43.00
MOEEN ALI 4, 6, 161.0, 38, 485, 10, 48.50
Woakes 2, 4, 59.2, 9, 197, 2, 98.50
Hales 4, 1, 3.0, 1, 2, 0, —-
Root 4, 3, 27.0, 5, 77, 0, —-
