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Moen Ali

essex boy

Striker
Would people still have picked him if we had the series again? I thought it was a backwards step at the time and still maintain that view. We are now next playing in India where we will need to find 2 x spinners in addition to Root. I guess we will bring in Ahmed a year or since his last test, more piss poor player management from Stokes

Ali in this series 180 runs at 25 and 6 wickets at 67.

Ali was as culpable as anyone for us losing at least the first test IMO, understandably he was woefully undercooked, thanks Ben.
 

Would people still have picked him if we had the series again? I thought it was a backwards step at the time and still maintain that view. We are now next playing in India where we will need to find 2 x spinners in addition to Root. I guess we will bring in Ahmed a year or since his last test, more piss poor player management from Stokes

Ali in this series 180 runs at 25 and 6 wickets at 67.

Ali was as culpable as anyone for us losing at least the first test IMO, understandably he was woefully undercooked, thanks Ben.
Jobs for the boys!
 
Would people still have picked him if we had the series again? I thought it was a backwards step at the time and still maintain that view. We are now next playing in India where we will need to find 2 x spinners in addition to Root. I guess we will bring in Ahmed a year or since his last test, more piss poor player management from Stokes

Ali in this series 180 runs at 25 and 6 wickets at 67.

Ali was as culpable as anyone for us losing at least the first test IMO, understandably he was woefully undercooked, thanks Ben.

I wouldn’t have picked him then and I wouldn’t pick him now.
 
No would never of picked him, same way Bairstow would not of had the gloves and Jimmy would not of played the last 2 tests.

I would have given Bairstow consideration after the second test, as Yorkshire had 2 x first class games during this period. I would have also insisted Moen played at least one first class game before being considered
 
Tbf to Mo, fitness has been more his problem than anything, which isn’t something we could have factored into selection choices. I said at the time I’d rather put all my eggs into the Ahmed basket, as we don’t seem to have any other choice at all tbh, and at least he’d benefit in the future from the experience if it goes to shit, but you can’t legislate for Mos injuries
 
Tbf to Mo, fitness has been more his problem than anything, which isn’t something we could have factored into selection choices. I said at the time I’d rather put all my eggs into the Ahmed basket, as we don’t seem to have any other choice at all tbh, and at least he’d benefit in the future from the experience if it goes to shit, but you can’t legislate for Mos injuries

As a counter argument is it realistic to expect a 36 year old to play a prominent role with no 4 or 5 day cricket behind him? I only ask as I am of the view the groin strain is as a result of this fact ie, it is a huge strain on the body to play test match cricket let alone for someone of his age

This is based on my own experience ie, playing a 2 day county age group game compared to a traditional 45 over game Saturday was like night and day so can only imagine the difference between playing 20/20 and test cricket
 
As a counter argument is it realistic to expect a 36 year old to play a prominent role with no 4 or 5 day cricket behind him? I only ask as I am of the view the groin strain is as a result of this fact ie, it is a huge strain on the body to play test match cricket let alone for someone of his age

This is based on my own experience ie, playing a 2 day county age group game compared to a traditional 45 over game Saturday was like night and day so can only imagine the difference between playing 20/20 and test cricket
We can only assume that he was passed fit by the experts in the England camp - and assuming this is the case, then I don’t think the likes of stokes and the selectors should be judged on the fact he’s been injured more often than available this series.

And his groin injury happened very early in the game which wouldn’t suggest to me it’s a fatigue thing, when he’s missed 2/3rds of the series. But I’m no expert by any means.

Your point is potentially right, but not a question we can answer on here realistically.
 
He’s performed better than I expected which probably tells you what I thought of his selection.

The alternatives were incredibly sparse mind.
 
Think we’ve got to pick young Ahmed and stick with him. The lad has obvious potential and there’s not many other options if Leach is unfit
 
We can only assume that he was passed fit by the experts in the England camp - and assuming this is the case, then I don’t think the likes of stokes and the selectors should be judged on the fact he’s been injured more often than available this series.

And his groin injury happened very early in the game which wouldn’t suggest to me it’s a fatigue thing, when he’s missed 2/3rds of the series. But I’m no expert by any means.

Your point is potentially right, but not a question we can answer on here realistically.

He has played up until today 19 days of test cricket in a very short period of time. To me if you are 36 and playing 3 20/20 a week as preparation you are asking for trouble injury wise.

Not a slant on the selectors but quite Ahmed has been discarded after a hugely positive debut I find odd,
 
He has played up until today 19 days of test cricket in a very short period of time. To me if you are 36 and playing 3 20/20 a week as preparation you are asking for trouble injury wise.

Not a slant on the selectors but quite Ahmed has been discarded after a hugely positive debut I find odd,
I’m not sure he actually played that many days mind 🤣🤣 spent half of it sat on the bench.

I agree on Ahmed - surely he couldn’t be much worse, so even if he didn’t perform there’s the opportunity for him to benefit from the experience and develop - which incidentally is the exact rationale why they’ve stuck with some batsmen like Crawley and Pope in recent times
 
I’m not sure he actually played that many days mind 🤣🤣 spent half of it sat on the bench.

I agree on Ahmed - surely he couldn’t be much worse, so even if he didn’t perform there’s the opportunity for him to benefit from the experience and develop - which incidentally is the exact rationale why they’ve stuck with some batsmen like Crawley and Pope in recent times

Agree on Ahmed. For a positive forward thinking captain why not Pick Ahmed for this test instead of Jimmy (due to his poor series to date) or is Stokes not a very good captain which I am starting to question
 
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