Moeen Ali can’t throw Nathan Lyon off his scent

Nathan Lyon has caused Moeen Ali plenty of pain. Picture: Getty Images

It was not only the scoreboard — defeat by 251 runs — that was a painful reminder. Merv Hughes, the moustachioed marauder from the Eighties and Nineties, and Geoff Marsh, former batsman and now proud father of present squad member Mitchell, were sitting in the crowd; Mark Taylor, former captain, and the great bowlers, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, were working in the media centre. Everywhere you looked at Edgbaston, there were ghosts of Australia’s successful past.

Time has long passed and memories dim but don’t fade away completely. At one point, I bumped into McGrath in the lunch room and said I thought that he would have a field day were he to bowl against Cameron Bancroft given that Australia’s opener plays across the ball slightly, as I did when facing him. Readers may need reminding — I don’t — that McGrath dismissed me 19 times over a seven-year period.

McGrath demurred about Bancroft, and then said: “You know, it’s such a long time ago. Did it really happen?” It happened all right and when you have that kind of problem against a bowler, you tend not to forget it. From a series in 1994-95 in which I scored a productive 407 runs, and McGrath was dropped after the first Test in Brisbane, I ended up seven years later unable to get a run against him.

To know why Test cricket is the hardest, potentially cruellest form of the game, you need to understand this psychological challenge. You need to recognise what Moeen Ali is going through now, for example, thinking about a bowler, Nathan Lyon, who has dismissed him nine times in the past 11 innings. That is not something easily put to the back of anyone’s mind, no matter how stubborn or resilient you are. It will be gnawing away at him, invading his thoughts at inopportune times.

When Ali first faced Lyon in Test cricket, in Cardiff in 2015, there was no hint of the problems to come. The opening Test of the series, England batted first and were powered by a hundred from Joe Root (batting at No 5.) Ali misremembered the first moment that he faced Lyon, just before the second new ball, writing subsequently that he hit the first ball from him for six. It was actually the second ball that he slog-swept into the crowd.

He faced only one over from him then, before the second new ball was taken, but the next morning he played Lyon aggressively again. All told, in that innings, Ali faced 13 balls from Lyon, scored 20 runs and he never looked in trouble. He made a quickfire 77 in the first innings and took five wickets in the match, and must have pushed Root close for the man-of-the-match award. Subsequently, Ali would not have given Lyon much thought at all: although the spinner took 16 wickets in the series, he did not get Ali out once.

Nathan Lyon was in top form in the first Ashes Test. Picture: AFP

In the next series, 2017-18 in Australia, the scorecard between them read rather differently: nine innings, seven dismissals. What happened? In Brisbane, Ali was leg-before and stumped (38 and 40); In Adelaide, he was caught and bowled and leg-before (25 and 2); in Perth, leg-before in the second innings (11); caught at cover in Melbourne (20) and leg-before in the second innings in Sydney (13).

Before England travelled for that series, Ali had worked hard in the nets, preparing himself for the quicks. He had set the bowling machine to bouncer mode, and during the practice match in Townsville, Queensland, he watered the concrete nets and had Mark Ramprakash, the batting coach, throw bouncer after bouncer at him. Having never been dismissed by Lyon, and having scored two hundreds in India, he was not worried by spin at all.

Gradually, though, from the second Test onwards, the Lyon issue took hold, the effect like a virus worming away into his brain. The bare facts do not reveal the anxiety that enveloped him. From not thinking about Lyon at all, he began to think about him a lot, worrying about how to play him: he tried to smack him out of the attack; tried to block him, and changed his technique — all to no avail. “I brooded about him a bit too much,” he wrote.

Root, now captain, called Ali to one side before the third Test in Perth to tell him of a change to the order. Because of Lyon, Root wanted to split up the left-handers and so Ali moved to No 7, Jonny Bairstow to No 6. Before the fourth Test in Melbourne, Ali tried a technical change, moving his guard over to middle stump. On the verge of being dropped, he decided it was s..t-or-bust time: he hit his first ball from Lyon for six, before smashing a long hop to cover.

After the match, Ali said that he was annoyed to read that Paul Collingwood, one of the England coaches, had criticised him for playing with a muddled mind. This, along with critics in the media, brought a sense of crisis. He played in Sydney having expected to be dropped. Dismissed for the seventh time by Lyon, he was glad when the series was done.

Afterwards came the one-day series and an end to the torture. Ali wrote revealingly about it: “The one-day team was so much more relaxed. The atmosphere around the changing room is different to the Test team, more laid-back. Test cricket is a lot more intense. The one-day stuff is much more fun.” He put that down to Eoin Morgan’s leadership, but really it signified the difference between one-day cricket and Tests.

There is no chance for a bowler to pick you over in one-day cricket. Getting out does not matter as much. Failings are not pored over, analysed to death. When, if, you face Lyon in a one-day match, the pitch is not worn, there are not men around the bat nattering away. You can attack without consequence. You do not need a defence to trust.

There were men around the bat at Edgbaston, again, in the first Test of this series and the nightmare returned. Bowled by Lyon playing no shot in the first innings — a horrible dismissal; caught at gully in the second, prodding defensively. Nine times in 11 innings now. And counting. Mo, I feel your pain.

The Times