First published in 2016 and now republished without changing a word – although we did update the lead image and add a link at the bottom.

If you have a problem, if no-one else can help, and if you can find him, maybe you can ask Moeen Ali to do the job.

He’ll probably say yes.

“Hey Moeen, fancy being an international spin bowler?”

“Yeah, all right.”

“Hey Moeen, great bowling. And great batting in the middle order as well – really dynamic. Do you maybe fancy opening in one-dayers?”

“Yeah, all right.”

“Cracking stuff. Really cracking stuff. Thing is – and I feel a bit awkward saying this because you’ve done really well; don’t for one minute think this reflects on you – but do you maybe fancy batting at eight? Don’t take it as a demotion. It’s more that the other guys can’t seem to bat at eight. Yeah, I know how that sounds, but it does seem to be the case. And you’ve been so adaptable – really just coped with whatever we’ve asked you to do, so…?”

“Yeah, all right.”

“Great stuff with the batting at eight, Mo. Great stuff. Now this is a bit of an odd one – we know you’ve never opened in a first-class match before – but do you maybe fancy opening in Tests?”

“Yeah, all right.”

“Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And, er, how about going back to seven and eight for a bit afterwards and then maybe we can ink you in at five for the winter.”

“Yeah, all right.”

“Okay, so obviously we did want to keep you at five for a while, but the thing is there’s been a few injuries and things, so in this match could you maybe bat at four in the first innings and three in the second?”

“Yeah, all right.”

“Great. I mean really great. We don’t want to mess you about or anything. You’ve really coped admirably with everything we’ve asked you to do and we know it’s not fair to keep messing you about. Ultimately, we want to allow you to get settled in one position. Role definition is very important in this England team. One thing though, er – how are you with spreadsheets? I think I’ve mucked up one of the formulas in this one and I can’t work out what I’ve done. You couldn’t take a quick look, could you? There’s also a problem with the central heating at Loughborough if you could check that out at some point? Also we need someone to make a few hotel bookings.”

“Yeah, all right.”

“Great stuff, Mo. We really value your ability to uncomplainingly turn your hand to literally bloody anything.”

> Moeen Ali: a magnificent malleable peg who filled countless holes in the England Test team

Few England players have deployed the long handle as delightfully as Moeen Ali. But which element is the more lovely – his backlift or his follow-through?

Like all sentient humans, we make a point of devoting one day each month to appreciation of Brian Lara’s backlift. A byproduct of this is that we sometimes find ourself pondering the best of the rest. And that’s how we ended up watching a bunch of videos of Moeen Ali slogging fours and sixes.

We’re not quite sure where Moeen Ali’s ranks in the pantheon of backlifts, but it’s pretty high up when it comes to England players.

We can think of a few other memorable ones – Paul Collingwood simply not bothering or Jos Buttler’s intimidatingly mechanical thing, which is kind of like one of those slightly-too-fast-moving robots they use to build cars – but it’s hard to think of a nicer one.

But then as we were watching Moeen’s velvety annihilation, it occurred to us that sometimes his follow-through was just as majestic. And then we thought, ‘which is the more majestic?’

Now this is a dumb question because what we’re basically doing is comparing Point A to Point B when the transportation of the entity from A to B is the truly important bit. That’s where the real magic lies; that ostensibly simple journey that must nevertheless overcome all manner of challenges and obstacles, such as attrition, gravity, mischief, calamity, incompetence, erosion, contraction, expansion and buffoonery.

It is always difficult to get from A to B. But we’re assessing after the fact here, once such a journey has already successfully been made. In that scenario, which is better, Moeen Ali’s backlift or Moeen Ali’s follow-through? Let’s compare these two key elements bookending the structural dynamics of flow.

The classic Moeen Ali backlift

Yeah, okay, maybe technically a backswing, but can we please not get into that? Focus instead on the potential energy; the unignorable announcement of the honeyed whiplash that is to come.

Moeen Ali’s club to cow corner follow-through

Not his finest follow-through – it collapses just a touch towards the end – but we do like the raised front foot which clearly indicates there was never any intention of keeping this one down.

Moeen Ali’s spin-slogging backlift

This is a bit squattier and less satisfying as a result. However…

Moeen Ali’s spin-slogged follow-through

Just look at that. And he isn’t even finished yet.

That, friends, is a follow-through.

Moeen Ali’s patient backlift

The starting point for this one can be seen in the still at the top of this article. We wanted to include this shot as well though to show how close the ball gets before Moeen starts conveying bat from A to B. This was off South Africa’s Andile Phelukwayo, who is not particularly quick, but is also not a spinner.

Moeen Ali’s straight bat follow-through

And this is where he ends up. Phwooar.

Just look at the geometry of it.

That follow-through is well fit.

Conclusion

We’re swayed by the variety and panache of Moeen Ali’s follow-throughs, but then surely part of the allure of the backlift is that there is a follow-through still to come.

We can’t separate them. You can’t move from A to B without A or B. You need both.

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England could shuffle their team in all sorts of different ways to cover for the absence of Jason Roy. The only thing we can be certain of is that no matter who opens, it will mean Moeen Ali being asked to do something different.

This is, in fact, not strictly correct, because being asked to do something different kind of implies there was a default option in the first place. So far, in five matches this tournament, Moeen Ali has opened the bowling and not bowled at all, and he’s batted at four, six and three.

The oddity here is that Eoin Morgan has consciously deployed him as an opening bowler, rather than giving everyone else their jobs first and then seeing what bits and bobs still need tidying up afterwards. That’s how England have generally used Moeen Ali down the years – as an experienced and knowledgeable odd job man who they’ve kept on retainer.

Somewhat surprisingly, Moeen has never actually opened the batting for England in T20s. This therefore seems like a very straightforward way of replacing Roy and also ticking yet another box. They probably won’t do that though. It’s a bit obvious. More likely someone else will be promoted up the order and then another person will come into the middle order and Moeen will slide into whatever gap opens up, like in one of those sliding tile puzzles.

This is of course all second nature to Moeen these days. Speaking earlier this week, he casually threw in a plural.

“The confidence is high and I just feel like a big part of the team. I’ve got important roles and I’m really happy with my game.”

“Hey, Moeen. You’re not going to believe this. We’ve found another one. We’ve been digging and digging and digging to try and find one and we’d pretty much given up hope. We didn’t think there was anything left. But there was. And we’ve found it. We’ve found another one. We’ve found another cricket job for you to do.”

Doing random cricket jobs has long been Moeen Ali’s thing. England have generally employed him as a sort of batting/bowling Polyfilla to fill all manner of cracks, chasms and rawl plug holes.

Like a switch-hitting back foot T20 specialist, this treatment has cut both ways. It’s surely diminished Moeen’s chances of getting to grips with one particular role, but it’s also given him many more opportunities to play international cricket than he’d otherwise have got.

You can pontificate about what might have been if you like, but we’d rather celebrate what was.

Indeed what still is. Because Moeen’s latest job is ‘opening bowler’ – and he seems to be pretty good at it.

Against the West Indies, he bowled four of the first seven overs and took 2-17.

He then bowled three of the first five against Bangladesh and took what we’re choosing to call ‘half of a double hat-trick’ in the middle one.

Maybe T20 opening bowler was Moeen’s true calling all along. Or maybe he’s just shed a load of fatigue and is approaching this tournament with a freshness he’s rarely ever felt.

You can’t get fit without also getting tired. The trick is to rest just enough that the latter subsides without the former ebbing away too.

Moeen has long been worn down by international cricket. He’s played for England over 200 times since his first appearance in 2014. That’s quite the workload even before you factor in all the travelling. There have been various periods of unavailability in there, but these only really advertise how fundamentally unsustainable his workload has been.

Always another game. Always another flight. You’d struggle to maintain 100 per cent enthusiasm.

But life is simpler now. Limited overs cricket builds to its two respective World Cups. This is one of them. Moeen seems pretty up for it.

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We’ve often joked about Moeen Ali’s willingness to take on any pretty much any job for England. Any format, any role, bat or ball, Moeen would give it a go. This means there’s quite a lot of ‘what might have been’ in response to his retirement from Test cricket. But it’s worth setting that idea in context before then making an effort to instead celebrate ‘what was’.

As we put it in the article linked above, England really valued Moeen’s ability to uncomplainingly turn his hand to literally bloody anything. This both helped and hindered him.

He batted in every position from one to nine and this week told the Guardian and Cricinfo that he wishes he could have had more of a run in one position.

But then he also concedes that he wasn’t able to work on his batting so much during the times when his bowling was seen as the more useful string to his bow. And with regards to his record as Bowling Ali, he says: “Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would get nearly 200 Test wickets.”

So while he says he felt he could have been more ‘on it’ with the bat, he clearly feels something akin to the reverse about his bowling.

And that’s the nature of being an all-rounder really.

Moeen got to do a lot more Test bowling than he otherwise would have done because he could bat. And he also played a great many more Test innings because he could bowl. There’s much to be gained from buying twice as many tickets.

Maybe he could have specialised more and become a better batter. Maybe he could have gone the other way and become a better bowler. But who’s to say that either approach would have made for a more fulfilling and satisfactory career? Is there not something to be said for the breadth and excitement of the taster menu?

With a batting average of 28 and a bowling average lurching towards 37, Moeen Ali’s Test record is ostensibly unremarkable. But these figures really mask the highs.

Moeen’s first Test hundred was just about as good as you get and he hit four others. He also took five five-fors and a pissing hat-trick. That’s a fair whack of good days. When we contrived The Hundreds and Five-Fors Rating in 2017, we argued that he was actually England’s best player. His fielding’s worth a mention too being as he’s the proud owner of one of the safer pairs of hands around.

That’s a really good career to have to your name, isn’t it? Rather than looking back and seeing an endless morass of forgettable fifties, Moeen can say: “Remember that time I blew Virat Kohli’s mind by bowling him through the gate first ball?” Or: “Remember that time I inexplicably left a Nathan Lyon straight ball and it knocked back my off stump?”

These are great and memorable moments. Moeen Ali didn’t tie up an end; he bowled to take wickets. He didn’t wring out all the runs he might have done, but he took a massive great backswing and used his willowy spaghetti arms to scythe fours and sixes with more liquid style than any other England batter of his era.

If you stop to think what you hope to get out of the game as a fan, it’s hard to argue that Moeen Ali didn’t do his bit.

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Last week we suggested that the adaptability of Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali was a key reason why they had become yo-yos for England. There are two sides to this.

Firstly, the fact that the two men can each perform so many ‘roles’ means that Test openings materialise more frequently for them than for other players.

Secondly, when they’re in form, the temptation to employ them to plug a gap elsewhere in the side becomes just too great and before you know it, they don’t know who they are any more, they’re out of form and they’re dropped again.

You could almost feel it happen on day three at Lord’s.

Bairstow’s fifty was further evidence of diminished fragility after his encouraging showing in the first Test. (Solidity would be pushing it.) This didn’t feel too significant in itself, until a flakey drive from Jos Buttler, at which point you could sense a contingency plan being formed.

Then Moeen Ali came in and batted like a prince for a little bit. “Wait!” someone shouted before he could edge one to slip. “I’ve an innovative leftfield idea about how we could address the seemingly unresolvable niggling weaknesses at the top of the order!”

Probably neither of these yo-yo tricks will happen this time around. But you can see how they do.

If there’s one thing we know about yo-yos, it’s that if you send one out, it tends to come back. If we know another thing about yo-yos, it’s that sometimes they get all tangled when they’re fully extended and don’t actually come back and then you have to spend ages unknotting them. What this means with regards to Moeen Ali, we’re not entirely sure.

Rotation policies aside, England have certain Test players who just get picked and it’s that simple. Joe Root and Ben Stokes get picked. Taken over a sufficiently long timespan, that’s actually about it.

Taken over a shorter timespan, most of the top order batsmen are consistently picked. James Anderson is generally picked too.

Recovery, prioritisation of certain matches and tactical deployment tend to blur the reasons underpinning non-selection for most of the other quick bowlers, while a reluctance to unbalance the side by playing any kind of spin bowler tends to do for Jack Leach.

Then there are the yo-yos. These are players who aren’t merely edged out every once in a while. Instead they oscillate wildly between being sure-fire picks and outcasts. They come and go and come and go and stay gone but then come back before going again. These players are unusual in that they are definitely, unequivocally dropped – completely left out of the squad for an entire tour – before being miraculously restored when the stars align again.

England’s two standout yo-yos are Moeen Ali and Jonny Bairstow, but you could certainly argue for the inclusion of Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes in this category too.

A common attribute seems to be these players’ adaptability – their three-dimensionality, you might say. The ability to bowl or keep wicket in addition to batting means that each of these players can be earmarked for a greater number of ‘roles’. If you had the will and an awful lot a lot of time on your hands, you could create a magnificently informative spreadsheet detailing what exactly England had in mind for each of these players at different points in time and how they were measured according to those criteria.

Remember that time Jonny Bairstow was DEFINITELY England’s Test number three? Or that time he was DEFINITELY a specialist middle order batsman? Or that time he was DEFINITELY the wicketkeeper for the foreseeable future? Remember that time he was DEFINITELY dropped from the Test team only to earn a Test contract three days later?

Similarly, if you’ve got some random job that needs doing, why not see if Moeen Ali fancies stepping in?

As our Hundreds and Five-Fors rating proves, there are countless ways Moeen can add to a side. Sadly, as a corollary of that, there seem to be just as many ways in which he will fail to live up to selectors’ specific expectations at any given time meaning yet another dropping is rarely far away.

We like Moeen. We enjoy watching him play. The best thing about him being a yo-yo is that there’s always a good chance he’ll be back. The worst thing about him being a yo-yo is that whenever he does play his final Test, there’s a very good chance we won’t actually realise it at the time.

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Image: Yo-yo, CC licensed by Miguel via Flickr.

Virat Kohli is a man who struggles to come to terms with being bowled.

We assumed we’d already seen Kohli’s finest “I’ve just been bowled” face. And maybe, for a pure, single facial expression conveying sheer bafflement that such a thing could possibly have happened, the face he produced after Adil Rashid hit his stumps is still the best.

But when Kohli was clean bowled for a duck by Moeen Ali? Well that was a whole big thing all of its own. That was a thing we’re going to have to take a detailed look at right now.

This was the sequence of events.

The first thing that happened was that Moeen Ali clean bowled Virat Kohli through the gate with a fiendish delivery.

After being clean bowled through the gate by Moeen Ali, Kohli made this face in response.

There was a distinct note of “wow” about Kohli’s face when he was bowled by Adil Rashid that previous time. On that occasion you’d say the look was disbelief with an undercurrent of shock.

This time around disbelief tussled with confusion for supremacy – “wow” didn’t get a look in.

“Did that… happen?” he asked the umpire and Rohit Sharma, using body language alone.

Then, still visibly grappling to accept what had happened, he asked them much the same thing using words.

Then he turned round and checked his stumps.

Then he checked with Rohit again.

“Really?”

Kohli looked like a man who’s just watched that bit in Lost Highway where the character played by Bill Pullman goes to bed and then wakes up as an entirely different character played by Balthazar Getty.

“Did that happen? Did that ball really just bowl me?” he asked the cosmos.

“No,” he eventually concluded. “No, that did not happen.”

And so he stood there.

After trying to hit the ball, failing to hit the ball and then the ball hitting his stumps, Virat Kohli decided that the most appropriate course of action was to stay exactly where he was.

So he did. He stood there. And waited. And he stayed standing there for quite some time with his stumps spread behind him.

That is quite the move. You need quite a bit about you to see reality unfold, weigh up your response and then say “no” to it – just flat-out “no”.

So after being very obviously clean bowled by Moeen Ali, Kohli stood around and made everyone watch a replay of him being very obviously clean bowled by Moeen Ali.

Only then – only once the word “out” had been shown on a massive great big digital board in the ground – did India’s captain reluctantly accept reality and walk off the field.

Virat Kohli.

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Moeen Ali hit four sixes in England’s last ball victory over South Africa in Durban. Because he’s Moeen Ali and hasn’t even heard of ugly batting, each and every one of them was a languid, spaghetti-armed thing of wonder.

In all, Moeen hit seven lovely boundaries in his 11-ball innings. Being as the last of those 11 deliveries resulted in his dismissal, this means that Moeen hit 70 per cent of his non-terminal shots for a lovely boundary, which is an unusually high proportion.

One boundary was more lovely than the others though and it was the one that was a very obvious mishit.

Having made 25 off seven balls, Moeen went after a wide one.

Here he is, feet planted in the wrong spot, stretching for it.

You’ll note that as Moeen was entirely aware that this wasn’t an optimal position from which to play the stroke, he ensured he was moving enough that the image would be very blurry so that he couldn’t be identified.

That could be anyone. Maybe it’s Danny Dyer. (It isn’t. It’s Moeen Ali.)

Now here’s a smudgy line that tells you where the ball went.

And now here’s Moeen’s completely normal follow-through for a ball that went where this one did.

So obviously Moeen didn’t hit the ball very well.

He hit it badly, if we’re honest. He mishit it.

Moeen sliced the ball very gravely.

He delivered, at best, a glancing blow.

And this is where the ball went.

If you’re wondering where this is, we can assure you that it’s still Durban because that’s Kingsmead’s giant KFC bucket on the right.

The ball landed among children and drunk people and both groups were very visibly excited about the sudden presence of the spherical interloper.

The shot resulted in six runs being added to Moeen’s score. We’d argue that even though it was a mistake, it deserved more.

It’s like Bob Ross always used to say: there’s no such thing as mistakes, only happy accidents.

We’re not exactly sure how the one Moeen scooped to long-on shortly afterwards would fit into Bob Ross’s world view. We suppose you could argue it made some people happy.

Did you see Moeen Ali leave that Nathan Lyon delivery? Yes, that one – the one that knocked his off pole out.

We wrote about it – about what it means – for Cricket 365.

You can read the piece here and we heartily recommend that you do so.