Michael Vaughan asked why Joe Root, England captain, did not bowl Moeen Ail more on day 4
Silverwood: India’s tail-end batsmen deserve credit
Michael Vaughan, an ex-captain of England, has expressed concern about England’s use of spin following the 157-run loss to India at The Oval.
Joe Root didn’t use Moeen Ali as an off-spinner on day 4 when the seamers were struggling for any pitch. Vaughan has also questioned the reason Ali was not under bowled.
He also highlighted Jack Leach’s plight, who was England’s leading wicket-taker for the winter with 28 scalps an average of 31.14, and has not played international cricket since.
Vaughan spoke on BBC Test Match Special. “The way England handles spin in this Test team is a concern. I don’t quite get the spin management.
“Jack Leach was magnificent in the winter and he hasn’t bowled a single ball this summer. He must be at sea thinking ‘what is my role in this England Test match team?’.
“This Test’s spin was problematic because it was clear that the ball was not swinging or seaming. However, we did not use Moeen.
“He didn’t have a great game, but I don’t think Joe Root had the best game in terms of managing spin. He could have bowled himself more.”
Vaughan is not the only one to question Root’s use of Ali. “mystified”By his unwillingness to turn to the spinner
His column is available here The Daily Mail Hussain wrote: “I was mystified by Joe Root’s tactics between lunch and tea.
“On a flat pitch, and on the fourth afternoon — probably the hottest of the series — every other team in the world would have been bowling their frontline spinner.
“Instead, Root kept flogging seamers Anderson and Ollie Robinson, who has been going hard at India all series.
“Whether he had lost some faith in Moeen because he was going at four an over, I don’t know.
“It’s also true he has bowled very little with the red ball this season. But it just feels as if a lack of trust in spin bowling is so endemic in the English game.
“Nathan Lyon would be bowling in the same situation if Australia was playing. If it had been West Indies, we’d have been watching Roston Chase.
“And when India came out to bowl in the final session, Ravindra Jadeja’s slow left-farmers were introduced into the attack as early as the eighth over. Sure enough, his first ball spun from the rough outside Burns’s off stump.
“If you’re the spinner in this side, you should be doing a job for your captain on the fourth afternoon. It’s as simple as that.”