If ever there was a team that was high on its own supply of uber-positive, cupsole trainer vibes, it is the England men’s Test team right now. And if ever there was a selection that embodied this mainlining of the Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum way, it is probably Moeen Ali’s return just nine days out from the start of the Ashes.
On the face of it, this makes no sense. Moeen turns 36 on Sunday week, has been nearly two years retired from Test cricket, has not even touched a red ball since, and averages 25 with the bat and 65 with the ball against Australia.
He is a wonderfully eye-catching match-winner on his day but the wheels can come off just as spectacularly. His last Ashes Test in 2019, even factoring in the ruinous effects of losing Jimmy Anderson just four overs in, was very much the latter and the hold Nathan Lyon had over him with the ball by the end was inarguable.
- Download the Guardian app from the iOS App Store on iPhone or the Google Play store on Android by searching for 'The Guardian'.
- If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you’re on the most recent version.
- In the Guardian app, tap the Menu button at the bottom right, then go to Settings (the gear icon), then Notifications.
- Turn on sport notifications.
However, to state these cold, hard facts is to slightly miss the point of what this England team are doing these days: what they keep telling us, which some at the back are clearly not hearing. Stokes and McCullum see only the upside these days and the narrative arc of a return of Moeen, entering the fray like Omar Little walking out into low-rises, is right up their strasse.
They talk of fun and entertainment not results and after poor Jack Leach suffered his latest encounter with a black cat, they have turned to a cricketer who has always been about glorious possibility, not guaranteed returns.
If there is one criticism here, it is that a two-day will-he-won’t-he drama that followed Sunday evening’s urgent WhatsApp messages to Moeen could have been avoided. Though the only ever-present in the attack under Stokes and McCullum, and victim of an injury no one saw coming, Leach manages a health issue, Crohn’s disease, that could have flared up this summer. To not have an understudy locked in already – for Stokes to have not quietly sounded out Moeen about his theoretical interest during their seven weeks together in the Indian Premier League – seems a strange oversight.
Perhaps this notion of planning ahead is a bit square and dated, however. “Live in the moment” has been the mantra under Stokes and McCullum and it has served them well. A run of 11 wins from 13 Tests – and not just that, the utterly compelling cricket witnessed – should see them afforded a degree of license to roll the dice. They have either transformed or launched a good few careers along the way; the kind of empathic captain/coach pairing that an inconsistent player such as Moeen could probably have done with five years ago. The hope now is that it has not come too late.
This really is the nub of it so close to the main event. Talk of England needing a spinner to hold up an end weirdly forgets the approach so far – 10 wickets asap and to hell with the runs – while what this says about English spin stocks is blindingly obvious.
Ever since the County Championship became a largely spring/autumn pursuit, the art has been in decline. Will Jacks, the main spinner in Surrey’s title-winning team last season, and at a ground such as the Oval, finished with 17 wickets at 47 runs apiece.
It says a bit about the aura of Stokes that Moeen answered the call. By his own admission he has mentally checked out of Test cricket for some time, declining a call-up to the tour of Pakistan to focus on the T20 World Cup, and speaking openly in the past about his dislike of facing Australia (their behaviour having since improved a bit).
That grim struggle at Edgbaston in 2019 followed a lack of relevant cricket in a World Cup summer and, four years on, now completely unhooked from the rhythms of multi-day cricket, an even greater crash course will be required.
As such, and with Stokes yet to prove his readiness as a bowler, it may be that England initially bolster their attack with an extra seamer and ask Joe Root to turn his arm over as a fill-in spinner. But the nature of the vacancy means Moeen’s chance will come sooner or later.
Stokes and McCullum will not demand craggy consistency when it does though, the pair subscribers to superhero theory; that if enough players win enough individual moments, be it simply a partnership-breaking delivery or a rat-a-tat-tat of boundaries with the bat, it will see them win more than they lose.
It may work spectacularly; it may end in disaster. But this is what England have been doing over the past 12 months and just because Australia are in town, the Ashes are on the line and the mercury will rise on the pressure cooker, nothing should change. Moeen, purveyor of dizzying highs and maddening lows, is simply the on-brand pick.
