The Analysis: Now is not the time for Moeen's Test recall... let him use The Hundred to get World Cup-ready

SAM MORSHEAD: A smiling Moeen Ali is a deadly Moeen Ali, and a wickedly entertaining Moeen Ali to boot. And the right place for him right now is wherever he is in his element, smacking spin all over the place in the middle of the innings

Let’s talk about Moeen Ali.

Chat around the England Test setup is that Moeen might get a recall for Lord’s. 

Chris Silverwood, the head coach and selector-uber-alles, said on Monday that the Worcestershire allrounder “always has been” under consideration (the sort of consideration, you would assume, that the average McDonald’s patron gives the Filet-O-Fish, given England opted against picking him, or any other frontline spinner for that matter, for three Tests out of three so far this summer). 

“That’s something Joe [Root] and I are going to chat about at Lord’s [today] when we sit down with a coffee and go through the potential XI,” Silverwood told Zoom-assembled media.

“We know he is a fine cricketer and is showing fine form in The Hundred. I appreciate it’s a different format [but] it’s something that has to be in our mind.”

Sure, it can be in the selector’s mind, but no more so than, say, when his car insurance is up for renewal, or how to rewire a plug.

Because when it comes to Moeen Ali, right now there is only one place that makes sense. And, with apologies to those who find this offensive, that place is The Hundred.

Hear me out.

A smiling Moeen Ali is a deadly Moeen Ali, and a wickedly entertaining Moeen Ali to boot. And the right place for him right now is wherever he is in his element, smacking spin all over the place in the middle of the innings and moulding teams in his image.

^{Moeen Ali in action for Birmingham Phoenix}

Currently, of course, that’s with Birmingham Phoenix, with whom he is on course to reach the knockout rounds of The Hundred and for whom, on Monday night, he cracked a brutal 28-ball 59 at Edgbaston, the cricket heart of the city of his birth. 

Moeen had a difficult winter. He missed the Sri Lanka tour, despite being in Sri Lanka, after testing positive for Covid-19 on arrival and having to isolate, alone and thousands of miles away from his young family. 

When he came into the Test team in India, for one match, he produced a ragging delivery which left Virat Kohli stuck with toothpicks between his eyelids, and was then widely criticised for going home at going-home time.

It is not unusual for Moeen to cop flak where many of his teammates don’t when it comes to England’s red-ball ordeals - he even spoke to this in an interview last year.

“You’re getting the blame for everything and everyone is looking at you,” he said in April 2020.

“I definitely felt like, while I was playing, that if we lost the game and were 54 all out or 82 all out, it was my shot that lost it or was highlighted more.

“It was my mistake with the bat. It would always be my face.”

So there are pastoral reasons for selectors to triple-check their decision-making before they call Moeen back into a team which is evidently struggling - for a cornucopia of reasons. But there are also strategic concerns.

^{Moeen Ali's last home Test came at Edgbaston against Australia in 2019}

Because an in-form Moeen - the most destructive hitter of spin in the middle overs in T20 history (at a strike rate of 166) - is a pretty potent weapon in a UAE World Cup which is due to begin in just 69 days.

A continued run in The Hundred until its August 22 final, leading into a potential IPL return with Chennai Super Kings (in the UAE)  through late September and early October, seems to be as good a foundation as any T20 World Cup player could want in the build-up to this year’s tournament. 

Of course, there are reasons why England would be encouraged to bring Moeen in. He remains perhaps their best available offspinner and at Lord’s averages three-and-a-half runs per wicket better than his overall Test career (32.66 against 36.24). His Test best also came on this ground: 6 for 53 against South Africa four years ago.

But England under Silverwood don’t seem to care about off-spinners in home Tests, and an about-face right now, with all the knots it would tie as a result, feels counter-productive.

Plus, there is a man called Jack Leach in the England squad - as he has been, seemingly without a break, for months and months and months. 

If England want to name a frontline spinner in their XI for Lord’s, Leach is that man. Let Moeen simmer and simmer until the World Cup. Spare him from those who will drag him down as their favourite scapegoat for a mediocre team. Let him shine, instead, as an important cog in a brilliant side.

Siphoning off Jonny Bairstow from this year’s flagship domestic tournament and white-ball preparations was peculiar enough, now is not the time to double down.