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IIt was early in the day but late in the game when Moeen Ali got to the middle. England were 116 of seven and 365 runs behind. They had already lost four gates that morning and they were painful to see. Tied in knots by Indian spinners, their hitters seemed to have adopted a new team policy of trying to play positively. Dan Lawrence was attacked by the field, Ollie Pope and Ben Foakes were caught playing the sweep. It all came out a bit unconvincing. As if they were practicing mantras they had just read in a self-help book: “I am a strong and confident spin player, I am a strong and confident spin player.”
Even Ben Stokes fought. He spent 52 minutes trying to find a way to get into the game, getting hit over and over again, nearly getting caught once by the top edge, then again by the side of his leg, and nearly knocked out as well. It was like watching Clark Kent rummage through the bedroom trying to find his boots and cape. Caught in a slip, Stokes walked away, shaking his head from side to side in bewilderment.
And here was Moeen. Sixth ball, he took two steps down the field and, swish, he lifted Kuldeep Yadav six longer. Three balls later, he leaned deep into her crease and sliced it square by four. He then hit Axar Patel for three consecutive sixes on the ground, each taller and more handsome than the last. Then, he went after Ravichandran Ashwin, handcuffed him by four midway, smashed him by six others with a mid-street sweep. There was one more four, drilled through additional cover, before he was stumped, charging across the field to try and hit another six. And he did it all while chewing gum too.
It made everything look so easy. And maybe it was.
It is true that Moeen had nothing to lose, but perhaps it is also true that he felt he had something to prove. Because watching him do quick work with the Indian spinners when it didn’t matter, you wondered why he hadn’t been given a chance to try and do it while he was still doing it. Moeen has done two centuries of testing in India (the rest of the team has done three between them), one of them in this same field. England have spent a lot of time in recent days trying to find a way to score runs in these conditions, it never occurred to them to ask the boy who played at number 8. He was a star hitter on a walk. -partly.
And the shame is that this may have been his last chance. Moeen is going home, which means this may be the last time we’ll see him at test cricket for a while. England’s management had already agreed that they would rotate him, and after five months inside the team bubble and a 20-day period of isolation in his hotel room while he recovered from Covid-19, he must have needed it. However, after the game, the team’s decision seemed to be reformulated as his. “Moeen has chosen to go home,” said Joe Root, “obviously he feels like he wants to be home with his family and we have to respect that.”
From this distance, Moeen’s situation is no different than Jos Buttler or Jonny Bairstow (like them, he will play in the IPL if he is picked up by a franchise, his cameo here will certainly also serve as a reminder for them before the auction. players this Thursday). But by, at least initially, describing this as a decision by Moeen, Root has left him open to accusations that he lacks commitment. It would be an awkward way to treat any player, but it is especially so for someone who has spoken before about how he has been made to feel that “he is always one of the first to be blamed”, and that England itself. Jeetan Patel said only that he needed to “feel a little love for the game.” And Root apologized to Moeen privately later.
The difference is, of course, Buttler and Bairstow went home after England won, Moeen does after losing, when spirits are high and everyone is asking tough questions. You can also understand Root’s frustration, even as he wished he had done a better job of disguising her. Moeen has taken more wickets against India than any other English spinner since Derek Underwood and took more wickets and scored more runs than anyone else for England in this match. Now England will probably have to go back to Dom Bess, who they just laid off. Everything is a bit messy.
Regardless of how it plays out, you hope we haven’t seen the last of Moeen in test cricket. Especially since even after all these years, and races and terrains, there is a lingering feeling that England has never figured out how to get the best out of him, that of all the roles he’s played for them (from Frontline Spinner to bat opening and just about everything else), he’s never been allowed to settle for long at the right bat. Sometimes it seems that the way England’s management has handled it has made a man who makes the game look so easy and straightforward to feel like a very complicated matter.
