Moeen Ali will not bowl for England in Ashes warm-up match in Perth

England all-rounder Moeen Ali will not bowl in this weekend's tour match in Perth in order to rest his injured finger.

Moeen is to captain England for the first time in the two-day contest against a Cricket Australia XI, but the plan is for him to play as a specialist batsman.

Hampered by injury, the 30-year-old off-spinner has struggled with the ball in the first two Tests, particularly in comparison with his Australia counterpart Nathan Lyon.

Moeen has taken just two wickets so far at a cost of 98 runs each while Lyon has played a big part in a pair of Australia wins, taking 11 wickets at 22.72.

The warm-up match ahead of the third Test gets underway on Saturday and Moeen said: "I probably won't bowl this game, just to give my finger a bit more time.

"As a finger spinner, it's the one thing I really need to be 100 per cent. I ripped it in the first game and it's not been easy. It just needs to heal.

"As soon as I start bowling it starts to rip a little bit, but it is healing now. I hope another week or at least five or six days will be quite good for it."

England find themselves 2-0 down with three Ashes Tests to play. The third match starts in Perth on December 14.

Moeen said: "Obviously, 2-0 down isn't great, but we still have a chance.

"It's a slight chance, but we've got a good enough team - and we've shown we can compete and hope to get back into this Ashes series.

"We took a lot out of Adelaide, actually. We started to fight back, and that's brought us closer together as a team. We've started to believe a bit more.

"Obviously, on the last day we couldn't do it. But, as a team, we believe now that we can."