Moeen Ali is in line for his first Test appearance in almost a year, while Essex’s Dan Lawrence could be given a chance to challenge for a place in England’s middle order, after both men were named in a 30-man training squad that will prepare behind closed doors ahead of next month’s Test series against West Indies.
Moeen, who was dropped after the first Test of last summer’s Ashes, opted out of England’s winter tours of New Zealand and South Africa, as well as the trip to Sri Lanka in March that was curtailed midway through the opening warm-up match due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
But having indicated in April that he was “probably ready” to resume his Test career, he joins the 16 players who travelled for that Sri Lanka tour, among them his fellow spinner, Jack Leach, whose involvement in the bio-secure Test series had been in some doubt after his bouts of illness in the winter,…