A Test match without his positive involvement is increasingly rare, and the 29-year-old is now the key to victory in India...
Moeen Ali confessed in an interview with All Out Cricket before the first Test in India that he has only just discovered his best position in England’s team.
Or, perhaps more pertinently, that England have only just discovered his best position in their team – batting at No.5 and just one of three spinners.
“For me, it’s the perfect role I want to be playing,” he said.
“Hopefully I can do it for years to come. It’s the ideal role and one I really want to make my own.”
It’s indicative of a player whose versatility has held him back that the process has taken so long.
Since making his Test debut in June 2014 against Sri Lanka, he has been recklessly shifted up and down the batting order and granted little opportunity to settle.
The situation reached its nadir last autumn, when – having impressed at No.8 in the 2015 Ashes – he was asked to fill the unenviable vacancy alongside Alastair Cook at the top of the order in the UAE.
The fateful experiment was swiftly curtailed as Moeen averaged just 14 in the three-match series.
Such persistent toing and froing was, clearly, grossly unfair.
Particularly as he inevitably struggled to replicate Graeme Swann as England’s lead spinner, having been lumbered with the label of being his heir after only bowling decent spin at county level.
The 29-year-old has hardly been granted an easy path in international cricket.
By May, Moeen had gone two years without a Test century and was only ever reluctantly handed the ball by Alastair Cook – a naturally conservative skipper who was unwilling to use a bowler with an economy rate of over 3.5.
Hushed whispers over his place were increasing in volume, particularly in light of Adil Rashid’s flourishing leg-spin.
So his subsequent improvement has been both crucial and timely.
Largely asked to bat at No.7 as a result of Ben Stokes’ injury, the Worcestershire all-rounder racked up centuries against both Sri Lanka and Pakistan over the summer.
His languid style could still get him into trouble outside off-stump – he tends to just waft at the ball – but in such good form, he was mightily pleasing on the eye.
That, and a clear willingness to leave the ball more often, meant that he batted well enough to be promoted to No.5 for this subcontinental winter.
His century against India last week completes a run of five scores of over 50 in his last five matches.
But, perhaps even more pleasingly, Moeen’s bowling has stepped up a level, too.
His strike rate has always been good – better than Swann’s, in fact – but his delivery of the ball is now more reminiscent of England’s greatest off-spinner.
The presence of Adil Rashid and Zafar Ansari has helped to release the pressure on him, too.
Rarely has his bowling been more consistent and threatening, with 14 wickets in the first three Tests on Asian soil so far this winter.
And so, after three years in the side, Moeen is finally shouldering some senior responsibility.
A Test match without his positive involvement is becoming increasingly rare – England scarcely perform well when he doesn’t contribute with bat, ball or both.
After a man of the match display in Rajkot, it is clear that Moeen must play a starring role if England are to dramatically overturn the odds in the coming weeks.
Now settled in the side, that level of performance is an expectation, rather than a possibility.
