England have taken the twin gamble of promoting Moeen Ali to No 3 for the rest of the series and selecting their oldest Ashes bowling attack for 95 years with the urn on the line at Old Trafford this week.
England won at Headingley last weekend to keep the dream of a great Ashes escape alive, but no team has won the series after going 2-0 down since 1936-37 and records go back even further to find a bowling attack older than the one Ben Stokes has selected for Wednesday’s fourth Test, in the form of Australia’s at Brisbane in 1928.
With James Anderson recalled in place of Ollie Robinson on his home ground at the age of 40, he will lead what has become dubbed the ‘Dad’s Army’ attack. Stuart Broad is 37, Chris Woakes 34 and Mark Wood 33, and in addition the spinner Moeen is 36. Captain Stokes – who bowled in training but is unlikely to bowl much in the match due to knee and glute injuries – is himself 32. If Wood picks up three more wickets, England will be the first team in Test history to have six players with more than 100 wickets each in the same XI.
“I was always told that old was gold,” said Moeen. “As somebody who’s quite old I don’t think it’s a bad thing. It’s not just old, it’s Jimmy, it’s Broady, Woaksey, Woody, so they’re really good bowlers, good guys and hopefully they can get some wickets.
“One thing you can always know, is what you’re going to get a lot of the time, especially from those four seamers. Myself, you never know what you’re going to get, but them guys definitely you know how good.
“They are brilliant bowlers and it’s great to have Jimmy back.”
England’s XI features just three players – openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, and Harry Brook, who returns to No 5 – under 30. Australia are also an old side, with only Todd Murphy under 29 in their likely XI.
Moeen’s promotion to No 3 comes after he volunteered to do the job in the second innings at Headingley to shield Brook, who made a match-winning 75. England have a vacancy in the position because Ollie Pope suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in the second Test at Lord’s.
“The team is the most important thing,” said Moeen. “I think Brooky is a great player and will be a great player, I just personally feel five is great for him, the impact he can have there is much more than he probably can at three at the moment. I’m not saying he won’t be a great No 3, I just feel right now for the team it’s probably best I go three.”
England have stood by wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow and, at a training session that was forced inside by persistent rain, he underwent focused training on his glove-work with coach Brendon McCullum and first slip Joe Root. Root’s drops and especially those of Bairstow have proved costly so far in a very tight series.
Australia seem certain to make one change, with Josh Hazlewood coming in for Scott Boland.
That would mean that Cameron Green misses out to Headingley centurion Mitchell Marsh despite having overcome a hamstring injury, but it remains possible that spinner Todd Murphy is omitted. That would be extremely surprising, given Australia have not gone into a Test without a spinner since January 2012, but they may have an eye on a patchy weather forecast and the fact that they need only draw to retain the Ashes, which could encourage them to pack the batting.
Moeen has 16 wickets at an average of 18.5 at Old Trafford, and believes it is a ground where you cannot go without a spinner.
“You have to play a spinner in a Test match no matter where, in my opinion a lot of the time, but Old Trafford especially,” he said. “I’ve always enjoyed playing here, bowling. There’s always something. It will spin especially day four or five, bit of bounce. always got something to work with.
Murphy was not trusted by Pat Cummins at Headingley, where he bowled just two of the 50 overs in England’s successful chase. Moeen believes how he uses Murphy will be a “test” of Cummins’ captaincy.
“I think the chase was a difficult one because we would have preferred facing a spinner and you were missing Nathan Lyon who has been a massive part of the team, and does an amazing job for them,” he said.
“Todd’s good, he’s got a lot of potential and I’m sure he’s going to bowl a lot more here.
“It [spin] is not always easy to use, from a captain’s point of view, it’s not always easy to use somebody who’s pretty new into the side, especially a spinner, and I think that’s where captaincy really comes into it now. Because when you’ve got a good spinner like Graeme Swann used to be or Nathan Lyon, it’s quite easy but now I think for Pat it will be a test of his captaincy and let’s see where you [Australia] are now, but he’s done a good job so far.”
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