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

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 12:48:20 +0000

Would have been great to see him as captain, too. Lovely Joe Root is great at the Gareth Southgatey parts of the job, but he’s never seemed very good at the Steve Waugh bits. No evidence at all for this, but Moeen seems like he would have been rather better. And almost certainly more interesting.

By: D Charlton

D Charlton — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 09:13:17 +0000

Brother Mo’s!

By: Gareth

Gareth — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 13:58:44 +0000

In reply to King Cricket. I mean, watch this space. That IPL money has to get spent on something right?

By: King Cricket

King Cricket — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 09:30:41 +0000

In reply to Adam. Somewhere out there is a world with a Brother Mo's.

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 09:23:53 +0000

Somewhere out there is a world in which Moeen played in a team with a fixed top four and a weakness in the middle order. There’s by all accounts a good chance that Moeen would have much more flattering (some might say more accurate) career statistics than this one.

There’s also a world out there in which Moeen played in a team with Graeme Swann and was played primarily as a batsman. In that world, he’d probably have a better batting average, but he might also have played far fewer Tests.

Being a malleable peg is a double-edged sword at times.

By: King Cricket

King Cricket — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 19:20:35 +0000

In reply to Gareth. Brother Mo's! The absolute best.

By: A P Webster

A P Webster — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 17:48:39 +0000

In reply to A P Webster.

Two HALF pints instead of a single pint.

I promise I’d had neither a pint nor two halves before typing that comment….

By: A P Webster

A P Webster — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 17:47:24 +0000

So you’re sort of saying Moeen’s Test career is like buying two pints of different beer instead of a single pint of one of them* – at the end, one of the two halves will be better and you might wish you’d ordered a full pint of that one, but on the other hand if you’d just ordered a pint there’s chance you’d have had a full pint of the less good one.

*Except at a beer festival, always order “halves” (which are frequently more like two-thirds of a pint) at a beer festival

By: Gareth

Gareth — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 16:23:23 +0000

Mo is just the best. That’s all you need to do in terms of career evaluation. Just know that.
I saw a video of him doing a “rapid fire 60 seconds quiz” once:
“Best film?”
“Pfft. Predator! Classic innit?”

And another one where he and Broad went to a primary school and did a Q&A with the kids.
“What would you do if you weren’t a cricketer?”
Broad: Something fairly middle-class and sensible that I can’t remember
Mo: I always wanted to open a chip shop where I live. (gestures with his arm to indicate the sign above the premises: “Brother Mo’s”.

He’s just the best.

By: Ged

Ged — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 16:15:57 +0000

In reply to sam. No drink involved. All slope of one sort or another.