Follow UsJust a week before the start of the Ashes, England were dealt with a huge injury worry, with left-arm spinner Jack Leach being ruled out with a lower-back stress fracture. While Rehan Ahmed and Will Jacks emerged as two front-runners, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) made a late call to all-rounder Moeen Ali to pull him out of retirement.
The off-spinning all-rounder will link up with the English setup ahead of the first two Ashes Tests. However, Australia’s head coach Andrew McDonald, who is fresh off the win against India in the World Test Championship (WTC) final, reckoned that the veteran Moeen will present a “challenge” to the setup.
"I think there's a challenge there, isn't there?" McDonald said, speaking at The Oval after Australia won the World Test Championship final. "Mo hasn't played a red-ball game for an extended period of time. No doubt he'll be prepared - he's had a couple of weeks' notice,” he added.
Not just that, the former Australian all-rounder also reckoned that Leach really complemented the aggressive English team, and his wicket-taking ability was vital for the Three Lions.
"But I think Jack Leach really complemented that attack and his wicket-taking ability and the way Ben Stokes has used him has been a little more aggressive and has reaped some great rewards,” he added.
"So, yeah, it will look different with Mo there. Mo has 190-odd Test wickets as well [and] strengthens their lower order, so it won't be the same but they'll have to operate fractionally differently - no doubt about that."
On the other hand, former England captain Michael Vaughan opined that Moeen’s bowling might not be consistent but, at the same time, reckoned that if he could find 12 wicket-taking deliveries in the series, England will be happy.
"His bowling? Well, it will not be consistent," Vaughan wrote in his column with Telegraph. "But he has the ability to bowl truly great deliveries and, if he could find 12 of those in the series to bring wickets, England will be happy
"Australia have a heap of lefties for him to bowl at, right down to Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood in the tail. It will be all about key wickets at key times, probably with the sort of aggressive fields Leach has been given.
Under Ben Stokes’ leadership, the Three Lions have been playing an aggressive brand of cricket, and Vaughan insisted that Moeen could be used like a match-up bowler against a left-handed heavy Australian setup.
"For a while I have thought England are a bit like a T20 set-up. Moeen will be used at certain moments, possibly even as a match-up bowler."