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Bangladesh v England: Moeen Ali keen to move up the batting order

England batsman Moeen Ali hits out watched by Sarfraz Ahmed during day one of the 3rd Investec Test
Image: Moeen Ali is keen to move up the batting order for England

Moeen Ali admits that it will be "tricky" for England as they prepare for a trial by spin in the subcontinent but is keen to move up the order and cement his place.

England named the squads for the Test and ODI series against Bangaldesh on Friday with 38-year-old off-spinner Gareth Batty and uncapped trio Haseeb Hameed, Ben Duckett and Zafar Ansari the standout inclusions.

All four have all been named in the 17-man Test squad while Duckett also takes his place in the limited-over group and Ali feels the quartet have all earned their spots.

"Obviously playing spin and the noise around the bat a lot of the time will be a challenge," the England all-rounder told Sky Sports. "The crowd will be against us but just playing spin all of the time is going to be tricky.

"You have to adapt to different conditions and so we've brought in two spinners (Batty and Ansari), an opening batter (Hameed) who has had a very good first-class season and another batsman (Duckett) who has had a brilliant first-class season.

"Everyone deserves their spot and it is only good and healthy to have that competition for places - it's good for the team.

"The most important thing is that we make them feel welcome, have a bit of banter with them and make them feel part of the group straight away. Then they can just concentrate on their cricket and not worry too much about trying to fit in."

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Ali also believes that the experience of Batty will be useful and that the variety among the four spinners - two off-spinners, a leggie and a left-arm spinner - provide captain Alastair Cook with plenty of options.

Gareth Batty of Surrey
Image: Gareth Batty has the control that England need, says Ali

"I've played with him quite a lot with Worcestershire, he's a good guy," he said of Batty. "We can learn a lot from him and he's probably just what we need right now.

"If you've got different options and a balance to the team then you can play different players depending on the pitch or if they've got a lot of left-handers then you want the ball to be going away from them a lot of the time.

"We've got different types of spinners, you've got two guys (Batty and Ansari) who've got good control whereas Adil and I maybe don't quite have that, but we can pick up those wickets - it's a great balance."

While conditions in Bangladesh and India over the winter should aid his bowling, Ali, who opened the batting for England in the UAE last year, is also keen to push his claims to move up the batting order.

"I'd love to move up the order, I feel like I'm batting well now," he added. "I batted well in the summer so I feel like I'm ready to go up the order again and hopefully keep my spot."

However, before the Test series gets underway, England have three ODIs to negotiate and with the Champions Trophy on home soil to look forward to next year, the team will hope to maintain the good white-ball form they showed over the summer.

Jos Buttler struck three sixes in succession to reach his fifty
Image: Jos Buttler will captain England in the ODI series in Eoin Morgan's absence

"Definitely results this summer give us confidence," said Ali. "Obviously, we're going to have to have a good winter as well but we're looking forward to the ICC Champions Trophy.

"We've been building up to it for the last 18 months so hopefully we can go out there and perform.

"We're playing with freedom and I think the mindset in general has changed. Obviously, the players that have come in are the type of players we want. We watched teams like Australia and New Zealand and how they play and tried to copy that, basically.

"The balance of the side is probably the most important thing. The balance in our side is terrific: we've got two spinners, four seamers and the guys bat all the way down to No 11. Teams probably come and play us and fear us big time now which is good!"

The ICC Champions Trophy 2017 tournament will be held in England and Wales between 1 and 18 June 2017. The ticket ballot for the tournament closes on 30 September 2016.  Apply for tickets, visit ICC-cricket.com/tickets

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