Moeen Ali is joining Yorkshire as a Twenty20 specialist in a shock move ahead of the 2026 county season.
Moeen, a double World Cup winner during a 10-year international career with England, announced a year ago that he was pulling out of the Hundred in 2025, but would honour the final season of his three-year Warwickshire contract to have one last shot at winning the T20 Blast with his hometown club.
It was expected that the run to the quarter-finals of the competition with the Bears, where they were defeated by Somerset, would be his last domestic action there.
However, having relocated his family from Birmingham to Dubai to embark on life on the global franchise circuit, he let it be known to contacts in the game recently that he was interested in coming out of county ‘retirement’, sparking a scramble for his signature which Yorkshire have won, Daily Mail Sport can reveal.
Moeen retired from international cricket 16 months ago, having struck eight hundreds across formats, taken 366 wickets with his off-spin and captained in white-ball series, deputising for Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler.
At county level, he also led Worcestershire to Twenty20 glory in 2018 before returning to Edgbaston after a 15-year absence in late 2022.
Moeen Ali is set to join Yorkshire as a T20 specialist, pairing up with his old England team-mate and White Rose captain Jonny Bairstow
Moeen has relocated his family to Dubai so that he is more easily able to compete on the T20 franchise circuit
Despite turning 39 in June, Moeen’s arrival is viewed as something of a coup for one of just four clubs never to have been crowned English T20 champions, not least because Yorkshire have lost experienced campaigners Dawid Malan and Jordan Thompson from their squad for next season.
Moeen will effectively replace fellow left-hander Malan, who captained the side last summer but has since moved to Gloucestershire, in the top four. Yorkshire’s Championship captain Jonny Bairstow will take the armband.
Moeen continues to have an impact with both bat and ball in 20-over cricket, hitting half-centuries in ILT20 matches either side of Christmas and winning man-of-the-match awards with his performances for Sylhet in the Bangladesh Premier League: two wickets and 28 off just eight deliveries followed by figures of 4-1-8-2 on Monday.
His arrival in Leeds might also encourage his close friend Adil Rashid to play for Yorkshire for the first time in four years this coming summer, having prioritised England and the Hundred in recent times while managing a long-term shoulder issue.
Double overseas signing for White Rose
Yorkshire are also closing in on two overseas signings, with an agreement for Netherlands seamer Logan van Beek in place to cover the first block of County Championship matches in April and May.
Van Beek, 35, contributed 34 wickets to Leicestershire’s Division Two title-winning campaign last year, but was deemed surplus to requirements after the Foxes snared South Africa’s left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj for the first four months of 2026.
And Naveen-ul-Haq, of Afghanistan, has been identified as the man they want to open and close out innings with the ball in T20.
Both Naveen and his compatriot Fazalhaq Farooqi were on Yorkshire’s radar, having spent time this winter as MI Emirates team-mates of Bairstow at the ILT20.
Dutch seamer Logan van Beek will be Yorkshire’s overseas signing for the first block of Championship matches in April and May
Naveen-ul-Haq (left), of Afghanistan, has been identified as the man Yorkshire want to open and close out innings with the ball in T20
Naveen, 26, has the edge at T20 international level, claiming 67 victims at 18.73 runs each, with left-armer Fazalhaq – one year his junior, and with 63 at 19.77 to his name – expected to sign for a rival county in the new-look Blast, which is reverting to three groups of six from a north-south divide for the initial stage.
Daily Mail Sport understands veteran Australian international AJ Tye, 39, will also arrive at Headingley for the Blast as a local player, following in the footsteps of his ex-Western Australia and Perth Scorchers team-mate Sam Whiteman, who was born in Doncaster and emigrated when he was three.
Tye has 39 white-ball caps for the Aussies and is a four-time Big Bash League winner who has previously represented Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire and Durham here.
WA four-day captain Whiteman, 33, has been recruited on a two-year contract and will cover top-order and wicket-keeping positions in all cricket after the club sanctioned the move of the No 2 Championship gloveman Jonny Tattersall to Leicestershire last July.
Yorkshire had also been one of the counties interested in luring David Bedingham, 31, away from relegated Durham after his four-year deal expired in November.
However, Durham have re-engaged the South African Test batsman, who has scored 16 County Championship hundreds since 2020, on new terms for a seventh straight season. He is expected to be available from April to September and will play all formats.
Despite the ECB hierarchy urging counties to halt the influx of Australian cricketers playing county cricket, and therefore acclimatising ahead of next year’s Ashes, there is no sign of such recruitment slowing.
Jake Lehmann, son of Northamptonshire coach Darren, will use his British passport to play here for the next two years at Hampshire, where Michael Neser – fresh from 15 England wickets in three Tests this winter – will share the new ball with South African Kyle Abbott during the club’s opening half dozen Championship matches.
Hampshire have also identified an Australian all-rounder to take over from ex-Glamorgan bowler Neser in late May, featuring in both first-class and T20 cricket. They are long-term admirers of New South Wales captain Jack Edwards.
Australians remain popular when counties are recruiting partly because of their high-quality, but also because Cricket Australia often fork out for their players’ flights, something very few rival international boards offer.
Jake Lehmann, son of Northamptonshire coach Darren Lehmann, will use his British passport to play here for the next two years at Hampshire
Lehmann will be joined on the south coast by compatriot Michael Neser, pictured taking one of 15 England wickets in this winter’s Ashes
Pears shake up overseas contingent
One Aussie who will not be featuring this year, however, despite previously being announced as returning is left-armer Ben Dwarshuis.
Worcestershire had secured Dwarshuis on terms for a third season, but a £400,000 Indian Premier League deal with Punjab Kings has led to the 31-year-old rethinking his priorities.
Pakistan leg-spinner Usama Mir is back at New Road on a three-year overseas deal, and the Midlands county will now rival Glamorgan for the signature of Nathan McAndrew, who has spent the past three seasons with Sussex but has become a victim of cost-cutting on the south coast.
Uncapped South African Beyers Swanepoel, whose 182 first-class career wickets cost just 20 runs apiece, is on a Championship-only contract but also has a sound T20 record to fall back on should he need to deputise.
Pakistan leg-spinner Usama Mir is back at Worcestershire on a three-year overseas deal
James Rew extended his Somerset deal to cover only the 2026 season, meaning that the England Lions player will be free to talk to other counties on June 1
Stoneman sets in at Somerset
Somerset are using ex-England Test opener Mark Stoneman as a batting consultant in the build-up to the new season.
Stoneman, 38, is filling the void created by Shane Burger leaving his role as batting coach at Taunton to become bowling coach under fellow South African Russell Domingo at Hampshire.
Recommended by Somerset stalwart and England assistant Marcus Trescothick, he is renowned for his work with emerging players like James and Thomas Rew, and is being considered for a permanent position.
One surprising piece of news out of Somerset is that James Rew extended his deal to cover only the 2026 season, meaning that the England Lions player will be free to talk to other counties on June 1.
