England’s all-rounder Moeen Ali, who has never before been dropped during his 50- Tests long career, was dropped from national Test squad during the recent New Zealand series following his poor outing throughout the winter.

Following disappointing Ashes series, the 30-year-old left-hander had once again failed to deliver in New Zealand, as he dismissed on 28 and then he dropped out from the second Test, which England drew to lose the two-match Test series 1-0.

At the moment, the spinner is currently playing his trade for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018, but he is yet to get chance to play in the tournament.

He also thanked Captain Joe Root for his honesty and sticking by him for a long time, but genuinely feels that he 'probably should've been dropped from the Test side earlier.' Now, the spinner wants to work hard on his game to earn a national call again for the Tests.

As per reports in The Guardian, Ali told reporters at the Taj hotel in Mumbai, “When I didn’t play the last Test in New Zealand it was a relief. I could have been dropped three Tests earlier – I probably should have been – but Joe said he sees me as a match-winner and, with 50 matches of experience; they wanted to give me a longer run. It was almost like: ‘Right, now I can actually work on my game and mentally have a break from the pressure of playing.’ When it’s my time again, I will be ready.”

He further added, “You do your best but I think I’m going to try and get back in as a batsman first, spinner second. The problem is, because I have played more than others – say if Jack Leach is in the same team, or Liam Dawson or Adil Rashid before – I’ll still get seen as the senior spinner because I’m more experienced.”

Meanwhile, Ali came into the IPL Auction 2018 at base price 1.50 crore and went sold at 1.70 crores, but says he is ready to play in IPL at free of cost. He further said, “If you asked me to play in the IPL for free, I would have done. I literally would have come for the experience, especially with the players at RCB like Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Brendon McCullum and Quinton de Kock.”

Moeen signed off by saying, “And I’m wanting to train all of the time. Even today we’re not down to but I have asked to do some extra time. Sometimes in the same environment, you maybe lose a bit of that. So I think the IPL has come at a great time, getting different ideas from new voices.”