Against Australia in particular Moeen Ali has days like these. Days like the fourth of the Edgbaston Test when he started his bowling for the morning with a beamer looped at Steve Smith’s head. The former Australia captain usually bats like he is being attacked by wasps but this time even more so as he swatted his bat around at face height. He went on to take 57 runs from Moeen in the innings as the spinner went for 130.
Days like the third day at Edgbaston when Moeen, on nought, left alone a ball from Nathan Lyon that crashed into the stumps. Usman Khawaja’s most hapless Test moment came in Galle in 2016 when he let the Sri Lanka offie Dilruwan Perera hit his stumps with a straight ball twice on the same day. Moeen at home in Birmingham looked just as bad.
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