The allrounder has never grumbled about whatever role he has been given in the Test side and his 100-wicket milestone was a fitting reward
George Dobell at Lord's07-Jul-2017Moeen Ali isn’t really a ‘Talk nah’ sort of guy.If he was, he might have wandered over to his new captain, Joe Root, and asked ‘Who’s your first spinner now?’ after the wicket of Hashim Amla. He had heard his bowling described as an “add-on” ahead of this match by Root, after all, and seen Liam Dawson promoted to first spin option.Or he might have slammed down his bat after his 87 and pointed out the injustice of his demotion from No. 4 to No. 7 in the batting order since England’s last Test. He had scored 190 runs in Chennai (146 in the first innings and 44 in the second), after all.But he isn’t that sort. So instead of basking in the glory of some really quite remarkable statistics – on Friday he became the quickest (in terms of Tests played) England-born allrounder in history to achieve the milestone of 2,000 runs and 100 wickets, also reaching the landmark quicker than undisputed greats such as Garry Sobers, Jacques Kallis, Richard Hadlee, Imran Khan, Ian Botham and Kapil Dev – he laughed at the absurdity of such a state of affairs.”In my garden I was better than Sobers,” he joked as he thought back to childhood games and what must have seemed unachievable feats. “If someone had said I’d play more than one Test I wouldn’t have believed it. I would never have thought I’d have 100 Test wickets.”Maybe that modesty has counted against him at times. During the Dhaka Test in October, Moeen claimed a crucial wicket – that of the well-set Mominul Haque – on his way to a five-wicket haul and afterwards was asked whether it was a cleverly-disguised arm-ball.”Nah,” he answered. “It was a normal ball. It just didn’t spin.”It was similar here. Asked if he was excited by the apparent turn on offer from this surface, he answered “No, if I get too excited I’ll just start bowling pies again.”It was wonderfully honest, of course. Miles away from the bragging we hear from some sports stars and a reminder of the fine role-model Moeen provides in every way. And that’s admirable in itself. But whereas the likes of Shane Warne might have taken such moments to build the mystery of his art – talking of different types of leg-breaks, sliders or googlies – Moeen was happy to be taken for what he is: a decent bowler doing his best in a job he never thought he would find himself doing. This is not a golden era for English spin for many reasons we need not revisit and Moeen has sometimes suffered for being the best the nation has to offer right now. If there’s better out there on the county circuit, they are not making it especially obvious.Statistics don’t always tell the full story, of course. This latest one, for example, doesn’t tell you that Moeen would need to take 100 more wickets in his next four-and-a-half Tests to equal Botham’s record of 2000 runs and 200 wickets from 42 Tests. It doesn’t tell you that Moeen’s batting average is more than 20 lower than Sobers’ and his bowling average his almost 20 higher than Hadlee’s. Nobody, anywhere, is suggesting he is better than either or any of them.But that doesn’t mean he is not a hugely valuable player for England. Or a hugely versatile one who has batted everywhere from No. 1 to No. 9 in the order and never given so much as a grumble when he has been the one obliged to move out of position for the good of the team. He even managed a little smile when Stuart Broad, another man who enjoyed a terrific all-round day, took a shy at the stumps in the final over and conceded four overthrows off Moeen’s bowling. Imagine roles were reversed…Moeen’s bowling has several positive qualities. Most noticeably, he bowls quicker than most spinners. He also spins the ball more sharply than most, gains more drift than many and has an equable temperament that seems capable of withstanding those days when the batsmen get on top of him. He’s never carried away and never down on himself. “Pressure?” he responded to a question about how he was feeling going into this game. “I don’t feel pressure at all. It’s only a game of cricket…”He’s not perfect, of course. He does not have the accuracy or control of the very best spinners, he does not have the variation or subtly of some and he is still learning ways to out-smart well-set batsmen over the course of a spell. There were times, particularly when he was bowling against the best Pakistan and India batsmen, when he didn’t look as if he had a lot of confidence in his ability to make the breakthrough.ESPNcricinfo LtdHe takes more top-order wickets than might be imagined, though. Of those 100 wickets, 34 have been batsmen in the top three, 18 have been those batting at four and five and 18 more have been those batting at six and seven. That’s 58 from the top six and 70 from the top seven. They include David Warner and Mohammad Hafeez four times each, Misbah-ul-Haq and Ajinkya Rahane three times each and Kumar Sangakkara, Steven Smith, Younis Khan, Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara twice each. There aren’t too many cheap wickets there.He’s had to reinvent himself on the way. When he was first selected, in 2014, it was partly with a view to utilising his doosra – at the time a huge weapon for Saeed Ajmal and apparently accepted by the ICC. But within a few months that was effectively outlawed and Moeen was obliged to add pace and bite to his bowling and rely on the somewhat more prosaic qualities of drift and turn and natural variation.At first he prospered as a bowler as batsmen tried to thrash him out of the attack. Think of the start of the Ashes in 2015: Smith and Warner looked as if they wanted to annihilate him at Cardiff. But he kept his head and got his men and gradually sides realised that the best way to play him was not to go after him, thereby offering him an opportunity, but to sit back, milk him and wait for the release ball. His bowling average since the start of 2016 – 51.20 – reflects the greater struggle that wicket-taking has become.It may be that Root’s captaincy frees him a little. Root has told him to attack more and worry about conceding runs less. He has told him Dawson is around to do the holding job and Moeen is given licence, with bat and ball, to attack. It might just work.The success of his batting has been less of a surprise. From almost the time he could hold a bat he was impressing in clubs around Birmingham. And while he might never be the most consistent or reliable, much the same could be said about David Gower. Quietly, Moeen is putting together a decent record as a Test batsman, here falling 13 short of what would have been a fifth century in his most recent 14 Tests. The average is creeping up. So is his assurance at the crease. In the same period – since the start of 2016 – his Test batting average is 48.54 He is a hell of a player to come in at No. 7.You suspect he would rather bat higher. But he’s far from ego-centric and he understands the reason why first Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler and now Jonny Bairstow have been promoted ahead of him. He won’t moan. He won’t cause any discomfort in the dressing room or on tour. He knows that England’s all-round depth – the presence of Stokes and Chris Woakes and him – give England a depth with bat and ball that must be the envy of most sides around the world. He knows – they all know – that such depth can take them places.Besides, deeds are often more eloquent than words. So when Amla was beaten by a sharply turning offbreak – the first ball Moeen had bowled to him – there was no need to say anything more. And when he smashed Morne Morkel through the covers or flicked Vernon Philander through midwicket, there was no need to tell anyone what a fine batsman he is.This England camp know they have a gem in Moeen. They know they have a man who can fulfil almost any role with the bat and who will be unflustered with the ball whether he’s bowled India out in a Test or been hit out of the ground in the UAE. They know that, on good days and bad, he’ll be upbeat and calm in the dressing room and committed and capable on the pitch. He’s not underestimated by them at all and maybe, as the cheers for his wickets and the ovation for his runs suggested, he’s not underestimated by England supporters, either.Moeen Ali isn’t really a ‘Talk nah’ sort of guy. And he’s all the better for that.