Former England captain Sir Alastair Cook, speaking on Test Match Special: “When I look back at Mo, he is probably the most selfless player to play for England in terms of he would do anything the team required.

“He batted from one to eight, I think he also batted at nine in one game. He opened the batting in Abu Dhabi, which allowed Adil Rashid to play, he came back in and batted at three in those Ashes under Brendon McCullum as well.

“He would do anything the team required, probably to the hindrance of his batting – you’ll remember, when he was picked, he was picked as a batsman who bowled a bit of part-time spin, because we didn’t have any other spinners, and we thought he was the best option because he spun it really hard, and we thought four seamers and him as an option was the way to go.

“Mo was a lot tougher than people gave him credit for. Because he was such an elegant stroke player, people didn’t really appreciate that in tough moments he was a clutch cricketer as well.”

Ex-England spinner Phil Tufnell: “Moeen was a silky smooth batter, and a destructive batter as well. That cover drive, how many times have we seen that? Not really a lot of foot movement, and then just absolute timing.

“Fantastic batsman and he seemed a reluctant spinner, didn’t he? But then once he got into it and realised he could really affect the game I think he really started working on it and as Cooky said, he really spun the ball hard. He was one of those guys where you could throw him the ball in the fourth innings and he could do a job – more than a job – beautifully.”