ENGLAND all-rounder Moeen Ali has been given the green light to play in Worcestershire’s Royal London One-Day Cup semi-final with Surrey at New Road on Saturday (11am).
Moeen has played in five of the Rapids eight North Group matches in the One-Day Cup and helped them to top the group with 13 points out of 16.
He featured in England’s thumping eight-wicket defeat against Pakistan yesterday in the ICC Champions Trophy semi-final in Cardiff.
Moeen's England team-mate Jason Roy, who has struggled for runs and was dropped for the Pakistan loss, will be available for Surrey.
England have also given the 29-year-old permission to play in Worcestershire's next two Specsavers County Championship matches.
Moeen can face Kent in the home promotion clash starting on Monday and the day-night encounter with the pink Duke balls against Durham at the Emirates from June 26 to 29.
Worcestershire director of cricket Steve Rhodes said: "For Moeen personally and all England cricket fans, we feel gutted for the team. They put in so much effort in that competition.
"Everyone sees that semi-final loss as a disappointment, and of course it is a disappointment, but they have proved to a lot of countries that they are a really dangerous and top one-day team.
"To have Moeen back, who is a real influential player in the England set-up, is a real bonus for us and something we welcome because he is a terrific player.
"He has played a lot of the North Group games and he has also recently been playing a lot more 50 over cricket than the rest of the team.
"We haven't been playing for a while, and he has, so that's a good thing."
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