Moeen Ali: A 'part-timer' spinner demystified

Moeen Ali

It isn’t every day that experts, coaches and teams go horribly wrong with their predictions for games, series, results, conditions, performances and the weather. Wait, is it? How many times have we seen an expert opine about the seamer-friendliness of a wicket, while it turned out to be a turning one; or even worse, a batting paradise? As they say, looks can be deceiving. What they don’t say is that history may not necessarily keep repeating itself. Haven’t we witnessed torrential rainfall just hours after a commentator welcomes the television audiences to a ‘bright, sunny day’?

I remember a game in which a certain West Indian commentator started the day with these words: “There are no devils in this pitch or in the sky – this should be an interesting encounter. And the spectators should be getting their money’s worth on a warm, sunny day, with the clouds seeming to have gone for a long vacation.”

Two hours into the game – it began to pour as if the stadium was in the middle of a tropical rainforest. Well, the rain gods (like part-time bowlers) do not like to be underestimated. They could be anywhere between poor, average and good on their days – but they 'will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger' when you are least expecting them to.

That is exactly what happened when India came to England in July 2014, probably chuckling about the Englishmen being overconfident and not including a specialist spinner in their squad. What they conveniently overlooked was the off break of Moeen Ali, who turned out to be the second-highest wicket-taker in the series – with 19 scalps at an average of 23 apiece.

"Ah! He's just a part-timer!"

That’s what the ex-India skipper, Sourav Ganguly, said when the bearded magician came on to bowl during the first Test at Trent Bridge. I really doubt anyone would be saying that now, especially after what Moeen did to India’s current batting stalwarts. Ali’s seemingly harmless bowling turned into India’s worst nightmare as he conjured up an astounding spell in the second innings at Southampton to wrap up a near-perfect victory for England. Some of his off breaks alarmingly changed their course when he got them to land in the rough outside Shikhar Dhawan and Ravindra Jadeja’s off stump, while he maintained an accurate line and length to the right handed batsmen. And he struck again, to finish things off in Manchester.

India is one team that prides itself in being brilliant against spin bowling, irrespective of the conditions. Yet, when the time arrived, Moeen ripped through the visitors’ batting lineup. Supporters of the Indian team (or neutral audiences) wouldn’t have been so severely shocked had it been James Anderson or Stuart Broad who had done the damage (since you expect them to do that). But this was like adding insult to injury; the injury being inflicted by the English batsmen (with the bat), Jimmy Anderson (contact Ravindra Jadeja to hear it first-hand), Stuart Broad (who took a mean blow and gave several back) and Moeen’s crafty off spin.

Captains around the world have used part-time bowlers to either try breaking a prolonged partnership, get the over rate up and moving, help a strike bowler change ends, curtail the flow of runs, give the regular bowlers some time to cool their heels. Of course, there are some leaders who use their fifth or sixth bowler on a regular basis. Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mohammad Hafeez, Yuvraj Singh and Jean-Paul Duminy are prime examples of the aforementioned statement. They’ve been utilized more as all-rounders, rather than batsmen who bowl part-time tweaks.

The opposition's undoing

Batting lineups generally don’t take part-timers too seriously. Irrespective of the format, they are treated as opportunities to attack and get some quick runs on the board. And this overdose of positive intent, on more occasions than one, has proved to be the former’s self-destruction button. MS Dhoni applauded Moeen’s performance, but also advocated batting positively against him.

With that thought in the head, Rohit Sharma, who had finally managed to get himself a spot in the playing XI in the third Test, threw his wicket away just five minutes before the lunch break. It was a sensitive period, where Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane were expected to construct a solid partnership, owing to the repeated failures of at least two of the top four batsmen. Alas, Rohit did what he’s best known for doing (throwing his wicket away after getting a start).

‘Captain Cool’ lost his cool, too, while trying to smack Ali over the top in the Old Trafford Test when India were batting out for a draw. In the Indians’ endeavor to first try and slaughter the spinner, and then try to negate him (when the former didn’t pay off), they ended up falling prey to Ali.

“Moeen Ali has done well, but you are making him look like a genius. You play rubbish at him. You are supposed to play spinners for breakfast and you make him look like a magician,” said Geoffrey Boycott, ex-skipper of the English team, in a recent interview.

Kumar Sangakkara, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Lahiru Thirimanne have all been recent victims of Moeen Ali’s seemingly nontoxic tweaks. Moeen feat, this. Uh oh, I meant, no mean feat, this. Moeen’s 19 wickets against India include some which any classical off spinner would be immensely proud of. He’s done it all – from inducing the outside edges of left handed batsmen to hitting the top of right handers’ off sticks. His deliveries drifted away from the Pujaras and the Dhonis before viciously (melodrama intended) turning into them.

The Worcestershire connect

This is something that was spoken about at length by the commentators and the press. The Birmingham-born all-rounder spent a good amount of time playing and training for county cricket at Worcestershire with none other than Saeed Ajmal, Pakistan’s strike bowler, and the current ‘master’ of the doosra. One would expect Ali to have picked up a few tricks from the lethal off spinner, a class act, who is currently under the ICC scanner for allegedly having an illegal bowling action.

Coming back to ‘part-timers’, they’ve played their part (and spoiled the party) on several occasions in international cricket. The likes of Mohammad Hafeez, Hansie Cronje, Andrew Symonds, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Yuvraj Singh, Craig McMillan and Jean Paul Duminy went on to become official all-rounders, after proving their worth with the bat and the ball.

And the ‘Oh-nothing’s-working-let’s-get-him-on-for-a-couple-of-overs’ part-timer was rechristened ‘The Man with the Golden Arm’ for his uncanny ability to break a settled pair. This list includes people like Michael Clarke, Virender Sehwag, Joe Root, Sourav Ganguly, Kane Williamson, Sachin Tendulkar, etc.

Too soon to talk, you reckon?

Well, some might argue that it is too soon to start taking Moeen Ali seriously (as England’s sole spin option), but he has definitely given the Tredwells, the Briggs, the Kerrigans, the Patels and the Panesars a run for their money. Yes, he would want to improve on those numbers in the batting column, especially since he was picked primarily as a middle-order batsman, but for now, he’s done enough to take him through the next 6-8 months leading up to the World Cup.

Part-timers or full-timers, India have struggled against all of them. Brings back the memories of that dreadful Wankhede Test where Clarke had the home batting lineup in disarray, doesn’t it?

With the ODI series up for grabs, Cook would be hoping Moeen carries his brilliant form into the shorter format (and Dhoni would be hoping one of his favourite part-timers, Suresh Raina, would replicate what the world saw from Ali).