Moeen Ali enters England’s spin equation – but why not Adil Rashid too?

Where did you read that? I would be absolutely shocked if Trott is dropped and Moeen opens. Moores even came out today and defiantly stated that Trott has earned the right to have a fair run at the top of the order. If Moeen starts it will be in place of Tredders not Trott.

Moores on Trott:

www.espncricinfo.com/west-indies-v-engla...nt/story/863345.html

Seems to me that putting Ali in as an opener instead of Trott, and Rashid instead of Tredwell, strengthens both the batting and bowling - but it seems unlikely that this will happen.

Moeen is not technically good enough to open the batting in Test cricket right now. His weakness to short-pitch deliveries was exposed during the World Cup and that is something that will only be further exploited in Test cricket. Moeen has also been short of time at the crease due to his injury at the World Cup with just the one innings for Worcester last week. On top of this, Moeen bats in the middle-order for Worcestershire and never batted higher than 6 for England. England need to stop putting players in positions they are not used to. They have a genuine opener that had a massive season in county cricket last year in Adam Lyth. If a change at opener is to be made - and I doubt it will during this series - it will be Lyth coming in for Trott.

Michael Vaughan again argued for the inclusion of Adil Rashid in the team for the second Test.

Vaughan also echoed our conversation regarding England's failure to select the younger players in favour of giving the established veterans more time.

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/intern...ashids-X-factor.html