The curse of the Ashes spinners claimed its third victim on the opening day of the final Test as Moeen Ali pulled a groin muscle while batting.
Though his prognosis is unclear the 36-year-old did not return to the field at the end of England’s innings, and as a result even if he recovers overnight he will not be permitted to bowl for most of Friday’s opening session, as Australia resume on 61 for one, 222 runs behind.
Before then he will be ordered to rest and monitored overnight – no scans are currently planned – before a call is made on his participation in the remainder of the match. Moeen is only in England’s side after being called out of retirement when Jack Leach was ruled out of the entire series with a stress fracture to his back, while Australia’s Nathan Lyon hobbled out of the second Test and was sent home after sustaining a significant calf tear.
Moeen had scored 11 off 38 balls when he sustained the injury running a quick single, and added 23 off his next eight deliveries – including two fours and a pair of sixes – before being bowled by Todd Murphy, Australia’s second-choice spinner.
“As soon as the physio left the pitch he was like: ‘Should I just tee off now?’” said Harry Brook, who top-scored for England with 85. “I said: ‘You should have been doing that from the start.’
“He’s one of the best power hitters in the world so there’s not many better men to have out there if you want him to go and smack it. The way he went about it after his injury was perfect. We could have easily got [some singles], because they started to put everybody back as soon as he played a few big shots, but he was in a lot of pain so there weren’t going to be many twos.”
Having decided at lunch that 250 would be a decent score, England were not too disappointed with the 283 they eventually made – particularly having benefited from uncharacteristic generosity from Australia, who dropped five chances. But Mitchell Starc, who is himself playing through the pain of a shoulder injury, hailed his side’s ability to keep calm and carry on, which allowed them to remain collected even when their chances were not.
“That’s the nature of the group at the minute – stay calm and keep creating chances,” Starc said. “No one means to drop chances. The fact we kept creating them speaks to the application and the quality of the group. At no stage was anyone flapping or anything like that, the group was pretty calm out there.”
Starc overtook Stuart Broad to become the leading wicket-taker in the series by snaring four wickets, despite the trouble he is having with hisi right shoulder. “It’s not the most comfortable thing but I don’t think any bowler in international cricket is going to say it’s comfortable for the body,” he said. “I’m not interested in getting scanned or anything like that. We’ll worry about it at the end of the week. It’s nothing major, I’m still able to bowl. We all push through niggles and this is no different.”
The day started with Pat Cummins calling tails for the sixth time this summer, and winning his first toss. “Marnus [Labuschagne] was the only one pushing for him to start calling heads,” Starc said. “Everyone else was saying you’ve got to stick to your guns, and if you go zero and six it’s not your fault, is it?”
