England’s other squad: how the Test drama unfolded … in Bangladesh

A s one of the great Tests was building to its barnstorming conclusion in New Zealand, England’s other senior squad was just waking up in Bangladesh. Though it was not being shown at their hotel some players found ways to watch the end of the game, while others relied on messages from friends back home or at the ground. Moeen Ali took a different option: he slept through it all.

“I woke up at 12.30pm, got on the bus to training and someone said: ‘Did you watch the game?’ I’d forgotten to check the score,” he said. “I’d actually woken up for prayer in the morning, we still had Rooty and Stokesy in there and I thought we had a chance, but then I heard about the stuff that happened and watched the highlights on YouTube on the way to the ground.”

Though the game itself profoundly failed to do so, what might keep Moeen up at night is its impact both on the white-ball team, missing a couple of potentially key players who have been otherwise engaged with the Test side, and on those players themselves, denied a chance to gain experience across the formats by a schedule almost as congested as Dhaka’s streets.

“It’s wrong for the younger players, who want to play all forms and as many games as they can,” Moeen said. “One day you will look back on your career – take me, for example, I’ve played over 100 ODIs and 60-odd Tests, and that means I feel like I’ve played a lot for England. That’s something to be really proud of when you finish. But Harry Brook for example could get to 28, 29 and not have played much white-ball cricket. I feel for them, but it is the way it is. Even if you ease up international cricket to help the players, there’ll just be more franchise cricket – somebody will come up with a league and fill that gap. So