Moeen Ali admits to suffering burn-out
Moeen, who asked for a break from Test cricket after being dropped following the first Ashes Test, has now admitted he was suffering from "burn-out" and felt he had become "one of the first guys to get the blame" when England lost.
And while he says "no timeframe" has been put on a possible Test return, he has said that "when I'm ready, I'll be back for sure".
"I felt burnt out," Moeen told the BBC Cricket Social. "I felt tired mentally and physically. I needed this break to recharge my batteries and work on a few things on my game. And to just find that hunger and love for the game again.
"It's not something people would normally do. Especially after you've just won the World Cup and the Ashes are playing. I was doing quite well before that. It was tough. But I knew it was the right thing to do.
"A lot of people could see I probably needed a break. It's easy to just carry on, keep going and almost dig a deeper hole at times. But I just wanted to step back from it. I started reading about my faith a bit more. And I started taking interest in other things rather than focusing on cricket 24/7.
And while he says "no timeframe" has been put on a possible Test return, he has said that "when I'm ready, I'll be back for sure".
"I felt burnt out," Moeen told the BBC Cricket Social. "I felt tired mentally and physically. I needed this break to recharge my batteries and work on a few things on my game. And to just find that hunger and love for the game again.
"It's not something people would normally do. Especially after you've just won the World Cup and the Ashes are playing. I was doing quite well before that. It was tough. But I knew it was the right thing to do.
"A lot of people could see I probably needed a break. It's easy to just carry on, keep going and almost dig a deeper hole at times. But I just wanted to step back from it. I started reading about my faith a bit more. And I started taking interest in other things rather than focusing on cricket 24/7.