Moeen Ali believes Liam Dawson could be an asset for England in Delhi
Tuesday 22 March 2016 07:22, UK
Moeen Ali expects England's spinners to play a key role in Wednesday's ICC World Twenty20 match against Afghanistan in Delhi.
England's first two matches were played at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium, on a track captain Eoin Morgan deemed a "bowler's graveyard", losing to the West Indies then beating South Africa in the highest-scoring game of the tournament.
But the capital's Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, where England play their last two Super 10 matches, is expected to be spin-friendly.
The squad worked with a handful of local spinners in a lengthy net session on Monday and Hampshire's slow left-armer Liam Dawson could be in line for his international debut in a three-man spin attack alongside Moeen and Adil Rashid.
Dawson, 26, a former England U19 captain, scarcely played in last summer's NatWest T20 Blast and bowled just five wicketless overs for Hampshire.
But he caught the eye of Andy Flower during the England Performance Programme tour of the United Arab Emirates over the winter and Moeen has backed him to make an impact if he does play.
"I've worked quite a bit with him, he's really good," said Moeen. "He can bowl really well with the new ball and the older ball.
"We've got a good side and we've just won a game against South Africa so I'm not sure exactly what the captain and coach are thinking, but maybe the guys are talking about playing three spinners. It would be a good idea, I feel."
Moeen is looking forward to finally playing on a spin-friendly pitch in the crucial Group 1 game.
"There's been some good pitches for spinners to bowl on so far. Every time Adil and I have watched the games we've been saying 'we'd love to be bowling on that pitch'," added the Worcestershire all-rounder.
"I didn't enjoy bowling in Mumbai, it wasn't really conducive to spin so I hope the other pitches, like here where we play our next two games, will be. Obviously this wicket is going to be a little different, a little bit slower and I don't expect the runs to be coming as quickly."
England are strong favourites to beat the Afghans, but Moeen insists they will be concentrating exclusively on the result rather than improving their net run-rate.
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"We've not thought about net run-rates at all, I'm not sure we've got the brains in our team to really think about that," he said. "It's more important we try to win the games.
"Afghanistan are a very good side and they competed well against South Africa. We're not taking them lightly. We are going to play them with everything we've got, just as we would against South Africa or the West Indies."
