One of the best bowling attacks I faced: Moeen praises Indian bowlers

Moeen Ali who scored a painstakingly slow fifty at number three on day one of the Oval Test has praised the Indian bowling attack and said that this is one of the best bowling attacks he has ever faced.

Moeen was speaking with the media when he opened up about his experience of facing the Indian bowlers in the first innings of the fifth Test. He said that the Indian bowlers bowled really well. They kept coming, bowling the same pace, same areas. They were just always, consistently there.

In the first innings, Moeen who came to bat at number three scored 50 runs off 170 balls, his slowest half-century in Test cricket. Talking about his innings he said that he just tried to take it a ball at a time. Moeen noted that the wicket was quite slow, but the ball was always doing something, so he just tried to stay patient as he could.

The England batsman was full of praise for Indian bowlers. He admitted that Indian bowlers didn’t give him a lot to hit. So he just tried to bat. When asked about his slow scoring rate, Moeen said that he doesn’t always play like that but they were in a decent position.

Moeen has batted at all positions for England between 1 to 9 and despite failing at number three in the previous Test, he was asked to bat at number three. Speaking about batting at number three and his preparations he said that he prepared differently this week than he would have done previously against a bit newer ball. The England all-rounder added that it just gives time to get the mind around batting at number three for England. He also admitted that he knew he was dropped, he knew he played and missed, but he said he was always confident and just tried to bat.

Courtesy of Moeen’s fifty and his impressive partnership with Cook, England lost just one wicket in the first two sessions on day one. Butler then repaired the damage done by the middle order and took England to 332 runs.