Moeen Ali to return as England search for spark in attack

All-rounder set to be sole change in side that failed to bowl out West Indies twice

Moeen Ali will replace James Tredwell when he comes into the England side (Getty Images)

Deep in their cricketing souls, England were always aware that this Test series against West Indies would be tough. Their well-founded fears tended to be drowned out by other voices who glibly presumed that the home side would do well to show up (based partly, it is true, on the reasoning that in India last year they didn’t show up and went on a pay strike instead).

If there was an element of self-interest and the need to respect opponents in England’s assessment, it also derived from the knowledge that, although cricket in the Caribbean is dislocated, it is not broken.

The opening Test in Antigua last week demonstrated that the region somehow continues to breed players of talent and spirit – aided by a pitch not conducive to the regular taking of wickets.

However, the unvarnished truth is that this remains England’s least onerous assignment of a long series of campaigns, the centrepiece but not the climax of which is the Ashes this summer.

If the team led by Alastair Cook cannot win at least one of the two remaining Tests here, without losing the other, then it may not necessarily be led by Cook for much longer.

The supposition was that the pitch at Grenada would be faster than its Antiguan counterpart and might take spin. Cook confirmed yesterday that this was not necessarily the case since he poked his finger in it on Sunday and made a deep indent. He was surprised at how wet it was but he expects it to have settled by today into something resembling a sub-continental surface.

England are likely to make only one change to the side that was held last week, as West Indies batted for 130 overs and lost only seven wickets in the second innings.

Moeen Ali will come into the side for James Tredwell, whose omission has been eased by a shoulder injury he sustained trying to take a rebound catch diving forward last week.

Their opponents will also make a change in the spinning department. The leg- spinner Devendra Bishoo, who played the most recent of his 11 Tests three years ago, will be recalled after impressing in the domestic first-class competition, in place of Sulieman Benn.

England’s players go through their paces in the nets at the National Cricket Ground Stadium in St George on Monday (Getty)

Denesh Ramdin, the West Indies captain, was frank enough to say that Bishoo bowled bad balls and good balls and they could only hope he bowled more good than bad. If he does, he could trouble England who are notoriously unaccustomed to facing leg-spin and not invariably any use at it when they do.

Cook did not completely kick into the long grass the notion of playing two spinners but that was probably more out of respect to Tredwell than serious intent. The indications are that they will retain the four seamers who toiled for 163.4 overs last week while taking nine wickets, one for every 109 balls.

England tried everything they knew in Antigua, which in the case of Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad is a considerable amount. But the feeling persist that their bowling lacked a spark somewhere, that it was too uniform.

Scouts spend their waking hours searching for and their sleeping ones dreaming of the magical mystery spinner or the lightning quick, late swinging speed merchant. There is nothing like that in England at present and, moreover, nothing resembling either in the emerging pack. If the batting, especially in the middle order, looks as strong as it has done for years, that is not true of the bowling.

At 33, Anderson remains the most skilful practitioner of the lot but not much that he tried last week came off. From somewhere he and, more especially, Broad need a burst of inspiration.

Sooner or later, England have to try either Liam Plunkett, whose brief fast spells are more easily contained in a five-man attack, or Mark Wood, who is slippery, accurate and confident.

Cook sounded more sanguine perhaps than he ought to be yesterday. “We’ve made a big step since I started playing for England, having the ability to adjust to those conditions,” he said. “We’ve bowled pretty well at home in conditions to suit, but when the wicket is harder for the seam bowlers to go and find ways of getting wickets and creating pressure is a huge credit to them.

“It helps when we’ve got one of the best bowlers we’ve ever had leading that in Jimmy, with his skills, everyone taking advice off him. I’m very lucky to have people like him and Broady around to do that.”

West Indies have deliberately come up with pitches designed to last but, if the surface at Sir Viv Richards Stadium was the yardstick, it will not wear in Grenada.

As Cook said, they are like sub-continental pitches without the spin, though Ramdin expects that to be rectified here.

Last time England won in sub-continental conditions was in India two years ago, when Cook and Kevin Pietersen made a lot of runs and they had two spinners operating in Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar, both no longer part of the team for various reasons.

There have been only two previous Tests in Grenada, neither of which were won by the home side. The first in 2002 against New Zealand was a draw, the second against Bangladesh in 2009 ended in a four-wicket defeat, though almost all of West Indies’ leading players were involved in a dispute with their board at the time and were not selected.

There is only survivor from that match, Kemar Roach, whose second Test it was, though Shiv Chanderpaul is still around from the 2002 match.

Cook reiterated that England expect to be detained until well into the fifth day. He knows that taking 20 wickets will pose difficulty and that to do so they simply have to be more effective with the new ball.

“We knew it was going to be a tough battle, we knew the kind of wickets we were going to play on and I think we were proved right,” he said. “Everything we spoke about in the media or in our changing room about it being a Test match that would last five days and would be tough to get the wickets.

“We did think it would be quite like the sub-continent and it turned out to be like that minus the spin. I thought the way we built a lot of pressure on their scoring rate, particularly in the field, was good and that created a few poles for us. I don’t think the blueprint will change too much unless the wicket surprises us.”

The wicket will not be a surprise but England should have the wherewithal this time to prevail against a side which is more resilient than too many pundits expected, but are still up against it.