Moeen Ali took Indian offie's advice despite having Saqlain Mushtaq as spin consultant

English all-round cricketer Moeen Ali didn’t play the first three Tests against India at Edgbaston, Lord’s and Trent Bridge respectively. However, he was eventually given an opportunity in the fourth encounter at The Ageas Bowl in Southampton and he gleefully grabbed the opportunity with both hands. The Birmingham-born cricketer turned out to be a thorn in India’s flesh in the penultimate match.

The 31-year-old picked up nine wickets in the match and also scored 40 useful runs in the first innings. Thereafter, he was adjudged as the Player of the Match owing to his all-round show. He has the luxury of having former Pakistani off-break bowler Saqlain Mushtaq as the Three Lions’ spin consultant. But despite having the legendary bowler, he resorted to taking Harbhajan Singh’s advice.

So all he needed to do was relax

Harbhajan, who is currently serving a commentary stint with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), mentioned that Moeen was pushing himself a bit too much in order to extract purchase from the wickets. He also said that the English bowler needs to be a tad more patient in his approach and keep pegging away on a decent batting wicket at The Kennington Oval.

“Moeen felt that he wasn’t doing enough with the rough outside the off-stump and that’s why he asked me to have a look at how he was going about his business. I told him that he was doing just fine, just that he was trying a little too much to hit the rough. But this pitch, unlike Ageas Bowl, doesn’t have huge cracks, so it is more about bowling on a good pitch,” Harbhajan told The Times of India (TOI).

“Sometimes, when the cracks are not that big, the outside edge comes as much into play as the inside edge. I told Moeen he wouldn’t get those inside-edge bat pads as easily as he was getting at Ageas Bowl. So all he needed to do was relax and go about his job.” he remarked.

In the meantime, Harbhajan said that he is impressed by Moeen’s performance. “It’s good to see that Moeen followed what I said. The cracks could get bigger in the second innings and then the dynamics may again change,” he added.

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