MO: I’LL NEVER BE A SWANN
... but I could be more than an ugly duckling with the bat if I’m allowed to make the No 5 position my own
MOEEN ALI has hit back at critics of his bowling, saying it is ‘unfair’ to expect him to perform as well as Graeme Swann while he is learning his trade as an off-spinner.
Moeen had a difficult Test winter with the ball, averaging nearly 65 during England’s 4- 0 defeat in India. But his classy batting brought him four Test centuries in 2016 and he is desperate to reclaim his identity in the national side.
‘The perfect role would be to bat at No 5, mainly as a second spinner,’ he told The Mail on Sunday. ‘I know I’m not the best spinner in the world. I’m never going to regularly bowl a team out like Swann. I’ve accepted that about myself.
‘But it’s a little bit unfair because Swann made his debut at 29 after bowling lots of overs and being a proper spinner, whereas I was a batsman who bowled a little bit of spin and started at 26. To be totally honest, I feel I’ve done better than I thought I was going to do.’
Moeen’s role as England’s utility man has endeared him to the management but it has not helped his own sense of stability. He has batted in every Test position from one to nine and been moved from an opener in the 50-over team to an almost anonymous No 7.
‘It’s very difficult as a batter to get consistent when you don’t have a consistent spot in the line-up,’ he said. ‘I get a lot of stick for my batting, but if you’re a No 4 or a top-six batter, you train that way.
‘If you’re at 7, 8 or 9, you work on your bowling. I’m sure if they put Alastair Cook to No 8, he would still score a lot of runs but the mindset’s different.’
To an extent, Moeen has been a victim of his own success. In 2014, in his second Test series, he took 19 Indian wickets at 23 a piece, encouraging the notion that he was ready to fill the role of first-choice spinner. Instead, his 76 Test wickets since that series have come at the less flattering average of 46.
But he has also paid the price for English cricket’s failure to produce a top-class heir to Swann and, to a lesser degree, Monty Panesar. The county game’s inability to furnish the Test team with a viable alternative is hardly Moeen’s fault. ‘Even though most of the time I’m the No 1 spinner for England, I still consider myself to be the No 2 spinner because I’m more of a batter,’ said Moeen, speaking at the launch of NatWest’s ‘Cricket has no boundaries’ campaign. ‘It’s unfair on Adil Rashid as well; he is a spinner and I’m a batter.’
Part of Moeen’s charm is his lack of ego, though it can count against him as well. While spikier characters might agitate behind the scenes for their preferred role, Moeen admit she has never pestered any of hi s England coaches — Peter Moores, Paul Farbrace and Trevor Bayliss — for a long-term crack at his treasured No 5 position.
Equally, he is frank about the fact that his all-round skills have given him extra leeway when it comes to selection. ‘ The best thing about being an all-rounder is that, if I was just a batter, I’d probably have been dropped ages ago,’ he said. ‘And if I only bowled, I’d have been dropped too.’ His most recent fate was to be left out of England’s one-day series against Ireland, as the selectors opted for one front line spinner in Rashid, plus the occasional off-breaks of Joe Root. Moeen believes the return of Ben Stokes for the three- match series against South Africa, starting at Headingley on May 24, will facilitate his own return to the side, since Stokes’ presence in the top six removes the need for a seamer lower down the order. And while Moeen says winning the Champions Trophy is one of his ambitions for 2017, he has an eye on cementing the No 5 slot in the Test team and being judged mainly on his primary skill. ‘I’d love the responsibility of batting at five,’ he said. ‘I know we’ve given a lot of other very good players the opportunity, like Gary Ballance and James Vince. But I’d love to make that spot my own. I do have a little bit more experience than some of the players they’ve brought in. After doing well there in India, it would be nice to see if I can keep going. ‘Even though I made two hundreds in that series, I didn’t make a difference to the result. That’s my goal now, to make a big contribution to the series against South Africa.’ If England can solve Moeen Ali’s identity crisis, he may be halfway to fulfilling his aim.
Moeen Ali was speaking at the launch of NatWest’s ‘Cricket has no boundaries’ campaign, which celebrates the sport’s inclusivity. NatWest is the new Principal Partner of England Cricket, having supported the game since 1981. Find out more at natwest.com/cricket #NoBoundaries