PAUL NEWMAN: England are RIGHT to call upon Moeen Ali for the Ashes
PAUL NEWMAN: England are RIGHT to call on Moeen Ali in their hour of need. Selecting exciting youngsters Rehan Ahmed or Will Jacks to replace the injured Jack Leach in the Ashes would be fraught with danger
- England are looking for a spinner after Jack Leach was ruled out of the Ashes
- They could have turned to promising talents like Rehan Ahmed or Will Jacks
- That would be too risky, though, and going for Moeen Ali is the correct call
It is the correct call. England’s approach to Moeen Ali on Monday, as revealed by Mail Sport, to replace the injured Jack Leach in their Ashes squad is the best and most positive solution to the problem.
Yes, the continuity option and one with an eye on the future would be to go with one of the two exciting spin bowling all-round talents they introduced with such spectacular results in Pakistan. But picking Rehan Ahmed or Will Jacks now would be fraught with danger, not least if Australia got after them and blasted them out of England’s Ashes attack.
Ahmed needs to be carefully handled because, at just 18, he is a leg-spinner of rare promise but is far from the finished product, even after taking a five-wicket haul on debut in the third-Test triumph in Karachi last winter.
Jacks may have gone one better when he claimed six victims in an innings in the first Test win in Rawalpindi, but he remains essentially a destructive batsman who bowls a bit and would be very much thrown in the deep end as England’s frontline Ashes spinner.
Then there is an all-rounder who has long been underestimated in Liam Dawson. The Hampshire slow left-armer is very much respected by England where he has featured in both red and white-ball cricket. In his last game he took six wickets against Northants.
England could have picked teenage prospect Rehan Ahmed (above) after Jack Leach’s injury
They could have also turned to Will Jacks (pictured) who performed well in Pakistan
Moeen Ali adds much-needed experience, though, and England are right to bring him back
But Moeen has the experience and mentality to step straight back into this England team, even though he has not played a red-ball match since his last Test appearance against India at the Oval two years ago.
Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum wanted Moeen to come out of Test retirement and join them in Pakistan last winter but, after much deliberation, he turned them down, telling Mail Sport that, at 35, he was ‘done’ with Test cricket.
That is why this correspondent did not think he was a viable option when news broke of Leach’s back injury on Sunday, saying then he was the best short-term bet but that it was unlikely England would go back to him.
But they have and they deserve credit for that. Moeen is an attacking bowler, would relish bowling his off-breaks at Australia’s plethora of left-handers and is a very strong batsman to be coming in at eight.
Yes, he does have a miserable Ashes record, taking only 11 Test wickets against Australia at an average of 64 and being dropped for two years after the Edgbaston Test of 2019 when Nathan Lyon dismissed him twice. But that record can only provide an extra incentive for Moeen. He has unfinished business against Australia.
He is a cricketer born to play Bazball and would surely have had a much more productive Test career had Stokes and McCullum taken over earlier.
Let us hope Moeen says yes and gives England a boost, even if he would be more likely to feature from the second Test rather than his home ground of Edgbaston.
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