Sri Lanka vs England 2014: Moeen Ali to open batting with Alastair Cook in tour game against Sri Lanka A

Moeen to open batting against Sri Lanka A

Nov 20, 2014

England will field Moeen Ali as an opener in the tour game against Sri Lanka A on Friday. England are in Sri Lanka to play seven One-Day Internationals (ODIs), but have two tour games before the series starts on November 26. England will play Sri Lanka A in the first practice game on Friday. Alastair Cook said that the decision to make Moeen open is after taking his off-spin into consideration.

Cook was quoted by England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) website, “It’s incredibly hard to even pick for this warm-up game. We really wanted to have another bowler in that top six and Mo gives us that option. He bowled really well in that last game against India up at Headingley. For a guy who has improved as much as he has his bowling in particular since he’s come into international cricket, this is another challenge for him as well to open the batting.”

Cook said that it isn’t easy to choose at this moment. They had to drop Alex Hales out for the game and get Moeen in to open the batting. Speaking about Hales, Cook said, “It’s a real tough call on Alex at the moment, but that’s nowhere near our final decision. That’s for this one game here and we see how it goes.”

England face a tough task ahead of the ICC World Cup 2015 to shape their unit into a competitive one. They have faced severe criticism in recent times over their approach to the format. Cook and his men would want to change that from this tour.