Is Moeen Ali potential England material ?

[flibbertyjibber]

May as well put it into this one as it is a thread about him.

Think we will have to accept the rough with the smooth with Moeen, he does win matches and has played a big part in quite a few already but seeing as he isn't/hasn't been a frontline spinner for long then we need to realise he will have more dips in form than a more experienced bowler. Not sure we helped him much ourselves by rushing him back for the WI tour with no cricket behind him and he didn't perform there which put him under pressure when he needn't have been and by making him open in the UAE but he is the best that we have and if he can get his bowling average down under 35 then he will have done a fine job seeing as he should average around 30 with the bat.

 

[smash84]

Nah, I'm seriously not implying anything about chucking.

Just in terms of his rhythm into the crease, I always thought he reminded me more of Harbhajan, in that he'd attack the crease in a reasonably front on position. Here, he was really exacerbating having his left shoulder pointed at the batsman even before his bowling stride.

I don't know about this. I never thought he attacked the crease ala harbhajan. Didn't watch him this test but will try to see if his action seems different.

 

[Furball]

May as well put it into this one as it is a thread about him.

Think we will have to accept the rough with the smooth with Moeen, he does win matches and has played a big part in quite a few already but seeing as he isn't/hasn't been a frontline spinner for long then we need to realise he will have more dips in form than a more experienced bowler. Not sure we helped him much ourselves by rushing him back for the WI tour with no cricket behind him and he didn't perform there which put him under pressure when he needn't have been and by making him open in the UAE but he is the best that we have and if he can get his bowling average down under 35 then he will have done a fine job seeing as he should average around 30 with the bat.

His strike rate is absolutely fine, what he needs to learn is how to contain and bowl a tight spell when the pitch isn't offering much.

 

[Dan]

In 30 years everyone is going to be sitting around discussing Moeen 'No Rounder' Ali based on his stats, and we're going to have the "NO HE'S A PROPER BOWLER DAMMIT" argument all over again. For eternity.

 

[Howe_zat]

If I'm still here in 30 years, kill me

 

[Stapel]

May as well put it into this one as it is a thread about him.

Think we will have to accept the rough with the smooth with Moeen, he does win matches and has played a big part in quite a few already but seeing as he isn't/hasn't been a frontline spinner for long then we need to realise he will have more dips in form than a more experienced bowler. Not sure we helped him much ourselves by rushing him back for the WI tour with no cricket behind him and he didn't perform there which put him under pressure when he needn't have been and by making him open in the UAE but he is the best that we have and if he can get his bowling average down under 35 then he will have done a fine job seeing as he should average around 30 with the bat.

Moeen's bowling average is nearly under 35 right now.

He might not be the new Swann or Panesar, but he certainly is good enough to do the damage. As England go with 4 pacemen anyway, he is not required to do a lot of bowling when the surface is noy yet ready for spin.

 

[fredfertang]

Either I'm wrong about how good a bowler Mo is, or he's been consistently lucky for 20 Tests - I still think it's the latter, but either way he's worth picking

 

[ImpatientLime]

Nah, I'm seriously not implying anything about chucking.

Just in terms of his rhythm into the crease, I always thought he reminded me more of Harbhajan, in that he'd attack the crease in a reasonably front on position. Here, he was really exacerbating having his left shoulder pointed at the batsman even before his bowling stride.

Maybe I was seeing things but I could have sworn that his action had changed considerably as you describe for the UAE tour.

 

[Stapel]

Either I'm wrong about how good a bowler Mo is, or he's been consistently lucky for 20 Tests - I still think it's the latter, but either way he's worth picking

Yeah, I've been thinkoing so too. Maybe he benefits from being regarded as 'the one to go after'? And he benefits from not being (over)used when there is no assistamce from the pitch. The English team is atm extremely well balanced.

 

[marc71178]

We appear to have gotten to the bottom of Marc's dislike for Moeen.

I don't dislike him. I don't think he's as good a batsman as is being made out and would say that he shouldn't be relied upon as anything more than an 8, maybe a 7 at a push.

He is definitely our number 1 spinner though, but needs more control, something that will come with experience, which he'll continue to get as he's fulfilling his role well.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Either I'm wrong about how good a bowler Mo is, or he's been consistently lucky for 20 Tests - I still think it's the latter, but either way he's worth picking

I think he's definitely benefited from teams underrating him and going after him badly - he gets enough work on the ball that it's tough to do that, but he bowls enough balls that you can sit on him (at least up to the Ashes - haven't watched much of England since then). But the thing is that similar happened to Lyon (and even moreso Hauritz) and some of that "stats padding" gives them time to get better as a pure Test spinner. So even though you might not think he's a 36 average bowler now, it's giving him time to for his "eye results" to begin matching his stat sheet.

 

[hendrix]

his batting is gun and he's probably amongst the best spinners in England not named Jeets. Can't see what's not to like.

 

[91Jmay]

I'd rather he has the ability to take bags on pitches that help him rather than him being a spinner who gives us control to be honest. 4 seamers make that role far less valuable.

 

[Athlai]

Like for athlai bait

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Moeen's bowling average is nearly under 35 right now.

He might not be the new Swann or Panesar, but he certainly is good enough to do the damage. As England go with 4 pacemen anyway, he is not required to do a lot of bowling when the surface is noy yet ready for spin.

Can tell I never looked after this test what it was as it was closer to 40 than 35 before it. Didn't think one good game would have done so much to an average.

 

[Gob]

Interesting that the last 3 spinners who played for England (Swann,Monty,Moeen) have all been spinners who were pretty quick through the air

 

[Adders]

Cept they werent the last 3 spinners who played for England.......cool story anyway.

 

[Gob]

Right the last 3 spinners to play meaningful amount of cricket

 

[Stapel]

Cept they werent the last 3 spinners who played for England.......cool story anyway.

I can't think of any other spinner being in the England test line-up for a half decent period. Scott Borthwick had one go & Adil Rashid played the tests in the UAE, but that's it, not?

 

[Pratters]

Never understood where to categorise Moeen the bowler. He isn't a specialist in the true sense. This means he will have a lot of bad days along with the good days. He isn't a stock bowler like Giles or a part timer like Hooper either.