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‘Haven’t done myself justice with bat’ – Moeen
- Updated: May 13, 2016
Moeen Ali has admitted he lost confidence in his batting after moving down the order for England.
Moeen made his name in county cricket as a top-order batsman. He opened the batting in his first international match – an ODI against West Indies in Antigua in 2014 – and then batted at No. 3 in the T20 side and at No. 6 when he first came into the Test side.
But, as his international career has developed, so his spin bowling has taken priority over his batting. He fell behind Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler in the Test line-up and, despite making two centuries as an ODI opener – one of them a 72-ball effort against Sri Lanka – he lost his position at the start of the summer of 2015 when the selectors left him out of the ODI team so he could work on his red ball bowling.
Alex Hales and Jason Roy subsequently established a dynamic partnership in his place and, since his return to the side in the lower middle-order, he has not passed 21 in ODI cricket. Only once in his last eight T20I innings has he made double-figures; four times in that period he has been dismissed for a duck.
He did have a brief spell as Test opener in the UAE, but was left more confused than ever by what was required of him in a team that, in successive Tests, batted him at No. 9, No. 8 and No. 9, before three Tests at opener were followed by a move back down to No. 8.
While Moeen understands the reasons for his position in the line-up, he has found it challenging to retain his identity as a batsman.
“If you want to be good at something, you have to believe,” Moeen said. “And I went through a phase where I probably didn’t believe I was a top-order batter.
“I didn’t practise it as much, because I felt like my bowling was keeping in the team. I definitely haven’t done myself justice with the bat at Test level. I have shown glimpses in all three formats, but I have not done as well as I want. I know I can do …
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