‘He’ll score runs’: Moeen Ali dismisses fears over Ben Stokes’s form with bat

Moeen Ali has dismissed concerns about Ben Stokes’s form with the bat with the T20 World Cup close. He believes England’s red-ball captain, who has yet to make it to double figures or to score at more than a run a ball during the warm-up series against Australia, contributes so much in the field that he deserves his place in the side anyway.

Stokes retired from ODI cricket in July citing the workload of playing all three formats and was named in the World Cup squad despite not playing a T20 international for more than 18 months. He has bowled two overs in each of England’s first two games against Australia – the last time he bowled his full allocation of four was against South Africa in February 2020 – but in the team’s most recent match, in Canberra on Wednesday, opened the bowling for the first time in his career. He also produced a jawdropping moment of fielding brilliance to turn a Mitchell Marsh shot from a six into a two.

“I think when the big games come he’ll score runs and that’s what you want from your gun players,” Moeen said. “Ben offers so much even if he’s not scoring runs – he opened the bowling, bowled really well and was brilliant in the field. That effort [to save four runs] was amazing.

“I don’t care if Ben doesn’t score any runs in the next couple of games because once the World Cup comes I’m sure he’ll be fine. Even if he doesn’t score runs he’s a great player to have in your team.”

Moeen, who captained the side during their recent 4-3 series win in Pakistan while Jos Buttler was recovering from injury, said the decision to open the bowling with Stokes demonstrated Buttler’s tactical flexibility. “That’s the good thing about Jos. Under Morgs [Eoin Morgan] everything was a lot more structured,” Moeen