Moeen Ali

His standout domestic summer came in 2013, when he made 1,375 runs across 17 first-class matches, with four hundreds and eight half-centuries, and also claimed 31 wickets. That campaign brought him the Professional Cricketers Association player of the year award, along with selection for the England Performance Programme tour to Australia and the England Lions trip to Sri Lanka. He first played ODI cricket against West Indies in February 2014, reaching his first fifty in the third match of that series, and he featured at the 2014 World T20 in Bangladesh.

With Graeme Swann retired, England turned to Moeen's off-spin to fill the gap in their Test side. On debut against Sri Lanka at Lord's he scored 48 in his first innings, and in the following Test he batted through to an unbeaten 108, only for England to lose when last man James Anderson was dismissed with one ball remaining. In the home series against India he took 19 wickets, the second-most for England, though he did not pass fifty with the bat. Promoted to open in ODIs in Sri Lanka, he struck his first one-day century in Colombo and kept the role, earning a place in the 2015 World Cup squad. He later found the going tough in a Test series in India against Ashwin and Jadeja, though his batting helped, and he was named Player of the Series at home against South Africa after collecting 25 wickets and 261 runs in 4 Tests.

In the IPL, Moeen was one of nine English players picked, joining Royal Challengers for INR 1.7 crore. He initially waited behind seam-bowling all-rounders such as Woakes and de Grandhomme, but in his fourth game he hit a match-winning 64 during a 107-run partnership with AB de Villiers, outscoring him, and was retained. In 2019 he made two fifties, kept his economy rate below 7, and departed before the end of the tournament to get ready for the World Cup. Chennai Super Kings later signed him for INR 7 crore and retained him for INR 8 crore ahead of the 2022 mega auction.