Missing Moeen Ali’s Discipline; England Need To Empower A Second Spinner 

Bhargav Dixit

English players celebrate a wicket. [Source: @ixxcric/X]English players celebrate a wicket. [Source: @ixxcric/X]

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English bowlers’ economy rate of 5.66 is the highest among all the 23 teams who have played ODI cricket in the last decade. At 5.72, England manage to retain their top spot in the last five years as well.

Since ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, last time when former England all-rounder Moeen Ali played ODI cricket, England have leaked runs at 6.39 to be the only side with an economy rate in excess of 6.

From a batting perspective, English batters’ strike rate of 99.08 and 97.62 is also the highest in the last 10 and five years respectively. As a matter of fact, since the last World Cup, a strike rate of 96.99 is also the highest.

Because a cricket match is won by a team which scores more runs, English batters’ strike rate should’ve been more than 100 for them to negate the damage done by their bowlers of late.

England Miss Moeen Ali

The damage, however, was done more by the team management and selectors than the bowlers. Even though the call to include an extra pacer was brave, it hasn’t proved to be a wise one. At least till now. What the England think-thank missed out on was a catalyst.

In simple scientific terms, a catalyst is a substance which speeds up a chemical reaction without actively participating in it. In simple cricketing terms, England miss Ali.

On paper, 111 wickets at an average and strike rate of 47.84 and 53.9 respectively across 138 ODIs appears mediocre. That being said, a bowling economy rate of 5.32 and a batting strike rate of 98.16 is what made Ali an ideal catalyst – someone who might not have actively taken part in victories but played enough a role to influence them as a second-fiddle.

Furthermore, England won 80 out of Ali’s 138 ODIs. Since his debut but without him, they have won just 26 out of their 59 matches in this format.

Adil Rashid Has Suffered In Moeen Ali’s Absence

Although this piece isn’t just about England’s ICC Champions Trophy 2025 debacle, the debacle did lay a foundation for it.

As much as the English conditions are suited towards fast bowling, spinner Adil Rashid is the highest ODI wicket-taker in England in the last 10 years. Only bowler to pick 100 ODI wickets in the country since then, Rashid is also the only English bowler with more than 200 wickets to his name in this period.

In the last decade, four out of the top five highest wicket-takers in both the white-ball formats are spinners. Adil Rashid and Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan are commonalities in both the lists. For someone who has perhaps never received the credit that he deserves, Adil Rashid‘s stats suffering when unaccompanied by Ali further highlights the latter’s importance to the English white-ball setup.

Since Ali’s debut, in ODIs involving him, Rashid picked 165 wickets at an average of 30.32, an economy rate of 5.57 and a strike rate of 32.6. If Rashid is the highest wicket-taker in these matches, Ali is the third-highest.

That being said, in Ali’s absence, Rashid’s 46 wickets have come at an average of 39.71, an economy rate of 5.80 and a strike rate of 41. Unsurprisingly, Rashid tops England’s wicket-taking charts here as well. However, there’s no spinner among the top seven wicket-takers. Thereby, robbing England of discipline in the middle overs.

Can Liam Livingstone Be England’s Next Moeen Ali?

Sure. Why not? In fact, if Liam Livingstone, England second-highest wicket-taker since the 2023 World Cup, further improves as a bowler, he has the capability to outperform Ali as an all-rounder.

Although there’s a 100-match difference in the sample size of Livingstone and Ali’s respective ODI careers, the former’s bowling average of 38.32 and strike rate of 37.9 is already better than Ali. What needs to be done is to reduce the economy rate to less than 6 to allow Rashid to attack and not be restricted to do a holding job.

If truth be told, Jacob Bethell is another exciting prospect in this genre of players. Therefore, England shouldn’t consider themselves short of options. What should be their most pressing matter is not distancing themselves from a second spinner. Another truth is that reliance on express pace options looks special when they’re rare but not when they’re one-dimensional.