Manchester: Moeen Ali has become the fastest English spinner to cross the 20 wicket-mark in Test cricket, featuring in only six matches that spanned across 58 days and the ‘part-time’ off-spinner has termed his recent performance as “crazy”.
For a team that was struggling three matches ago to replace Graeme Swann, England have now completely moved on from the retired off-spinner.
“It is crazy. I never thought of it. It is still early days in my career,” Ali told BBC, when he was informed of the record.
Swann had enjoyed a lot of success against Indian batsmen, having taken 13 wickets in four Tests during the 2011 tour and then another 20 when England toured in 2012-13. Comparatively, in four matches against India so far, Ali has already picked up 19 wickets.
He may not have completely exceeded Swann as yet, but he has exceeded expectations.
It has a meteoric rise for Ali, who has grown from being the support-bowler to Saeed Ajmal of Pakistan at Worcestershire to his country’s lead-spinner.
In the first Test at Nottingham, it almost appeared as if England didn’t have a second line of attack after James Anderson and Stuart Broad. The flat pitch there masked this belief. And they didn’t fare well enough on the green-top at Lord’s either, so nobody noticed that Ali had quietly picked up seven wickets in the first two Tests.
India failed to notice many problems in their touring set-up thanks to that euphoric 95-run win and tackling Ali was one of them.
But at Southampton they were duly found out. The Indian batsmen didn’t know whether to come forward or go back to Ali. They didn’t want to attack him because they were fighting to save the match. And when they defended, they collapsed.
The tactic was changed in the fourth Test and yet again they collapsed, this time whilst attacking. Indian batsmen are generally very good at playing spin, but this has proven to be a near-myth on this tour so far.
“I took a lot of confidence from the Lord’s game. I felt like I bowled quite well in that match. I try to bowl quicker, straighter and bowl tight so the quicker bowlers can rest up. Picking up wickets is nice and the natural variation I get, some balls spin and some don’t spin, that has helped me. The batsmen find it harder to come down the wicket then, and I can cannon it through and create a situation to pick up wicket,” Ali explained.
What has further helped Ali is the fact that England have learnt to utilise his confidence in an aggressive direction, which is to target Indian batsmen and not just play him as a support bowler. Skipper Alastair Cook relied on him on day one of the Lord’s Test. It seemed a foolish ploy to many, but over the course of three Tests, this reliance on Ali to keep one end tight and attack the batsmen has borne fruit. “Moeen has shown that international cricket is a chance to develop really fast because you are amongst better players,” England coach Peter Moores had said after his side’s innings-and-54-run win in the fourth Test. Ali’s performance has cast a shadow on the performance of the Indian spinners. Ravichandra Ashwin has played only one match in the series so far, with Jadeja the preferred choice, and hence is under the scanner. (PTI)