Rishi Sunak heaps pressure on Moeen Ali to answer England’s Ashes ‘SOS’ and come out of retirement
RISHI Sunak has heaped pressure on Moeen Ali to answer England’s Ashes “SOS”.
The Prime Minister said the line up for this summer’s series is “the concerning issue on my mind at the moment”, after spinner Jack Leach was dropped with injury.
Moeen, 35, has been asked by England captain Ben Stokes to return from retirement and is weighing up the plea.
But cricket-mad Mr Sunak told reporters on his way to the United States that he hoped he will accept the call up to save England’s attack.
“I’m focussed on who’s going to replace Jack Leach for the Ashes, which is more the concerning issue on my mind at the moment,” he told reporters onboard his government jet.
Asked who should replace injured Leach, the PM said: “That’s tough. Either send the SOS for Moeen Ali, or indeed that 18 year old who played that one Test, is it Rehan Ahmed, who had that one unbelievable game.”
But the top Tory said he had no doubts that England will beating Australia when the Test matches begin in ten days time.
“I’m very confident,” he said. “They managed to get me bowled out in the garden at Downing Street, so they’re in good nick.”
Mr Sunak will watch the Washington Nationals take on the Arizona Diamond backs on Thursday in a game which will celebrate US and UK ties.
But he has ducked out of an invite to throw the honorary first pitch at the ball game.
He was invited, but insisted he will hand the honour to Stuart Taylor, a former British Army warrant office and CEO of the Allied Forces Foundation which supports injured servicemen and women.
The game, at Nationals Park, will see a military flypast, performances by the Royal Marine Corps of Drums and the Washington Tattoo and the singing of both the US and UK anthems.
Quizzed on whether he was chicken, the PM insisted: “I wasn’t actually meant to ever do it. Who is doing it is a veteran, a great UK veteran who you’ll hopefully get to see, who’s going to be fantastic and I actually think the most appropriate person to do it given the context of the game and what it celebrates.”
“As you guys know, my sport is more cricket than baseball in any case.