So Moeen Ali? I’ve not seen any of this series. Is he simply sh*t, is it all the cut on his finger or has he been unlucky?
We all play club cricket at varying levels. If you were the captain/coach of the StDunstans Irregulars 3XI - would you pick a spinner who couldn’t fulfill his primary function?
Malan’s looking like the primary batsman/part-time spinner at the moment.
Well...
He was clearly unfit going into the first test, having missed a tour game with a side strain. Then he ripped open his spinning finger in the first test and almost missed the second test because of it.
Australia is also a very tough place for visiting spinners, Murali averages something like 75 there, Yasir Shah toured there and averaged something like 80 iirc? Swann retired halfway through an Ashes tour to keep his career average below 30.
On top of those mitigating factors, Moeen has also just bowled a bit (No Swearing Please).
I also think Root has done a poor job of handling Moeen too. I think it was in the previous test where Moeen came on a few overs before the old ball, got rid of one of the Marsh brothers (The only wicket that fell all day iirc?) in his first over and he only bowled one more over before being replaced by Anderson in the 78th over or so.
So not only did Moeen come on for a marathon two over spell, but it meant that Anderson only bowled two and a half overs with the new ball because he was half way through his spell by the time it became available. That's just crap captaincy.
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Topic: Ashes 2017-18 (Read 415056 times)