Moeen Ali is contemplating an invitation from England to come out of retirement and replace the injured Jack Leach in the Ashes.

In the next 48 hours, the all-rounder will determine whether he is prepared to terminate his retirement from Test cricket and respond to England's spin-bowling crisis in the Ashes.

The 31-year-old spinner Leach was ruled out of the five-Test series after a scan revealed a stress fracture in his spine. This is a serious setback to England. Leach is the only bowler to have participated in each of the thirteen Tests since captain Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum assumed control last summer. It appeared likely that he would play a significant role in the attack, given the uncertainty surrounding Stokes' bowling fitness.

That’s why England approached Moeen to fill the void. "I actually feel like there's things I've been missing over the last couple of years. I've just started to get it back again: a bit of rhythm in my action,” Moeen said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

"When I was playing Test matches, I always felt like I was bowling well in white-ball cricket. You can kind of lose that rhythm, I guess. I think I've got to have that mindset of still bowling with that same energy as I would have done in Test matches."

Moeen retired from Test cricket in 2021. The 35-year-old Moeen has played in 67 Tests, during which he has accumulated 2914 runs and 195 wickets at an average of 36.66. He felt his time in long-form cricket had passed, in part due to problems with his spinning finger, and so he made the choice to break away from the format in order to focus completely on limited-overs cricket.

England's selection committee has not settled on a replacement for Leach for the first Ashes Test, which will begin on Friday, June 16 at Edgbaston. The other top candidates to take over for Leach include Liam Dawson, Rehan Ahmed, and Will Jacks.