Moeen Ali calls on England bowlers to jack up ideas after struggles against Windies

Moeen Ali believes England’s bowlers must be savvier and have more than one ace up their sleeve to discourage the West Indies’ big-hitting batters after taking some sustained punishment in the Twenty20 series.

Just days after Romario Shepherd and Akeal Hosein fell agonisingly short of engineering an against-all-odds win with some incredible batting at the death, Rovman Powell and Nicholas Pooran belted England’s bowlers to all parts.

Powell became the third Windies male to register a T20 hundred as they racked up 224 for five on Wednesday – their highest total against England, who conceded a hefty 110 in the final seven overs to fall 2-1 down in the series.

England’s bowling at the back end of an innings has been a source of concern recently and while this line-up is light on experience, Moeen has called on the seamers in particular to box clever in this weekend’s double-header.

“Even though bowlers have the hardest job in T20 cricket, death bowling in particular, the problem with us is we’ve had this issue for a while,” said Moeen, standing in as England captain because of an injury to Eoin Morgan.

“We need to change the mindset of the bowlers and the perception people have about us as well as a death bowling team. We’re working hard for that.

“You’re going to get hit but I think there needs to be a bit more of a plan A, plan B, plan C so you’ve got places to go if things are not going well.

“If you’re not going for boundaries, then you will pick up wickets. That’s where we can probably be a little bit smarter. We need to recognise it a little bit earlier.”

While Powell and Pooran were clearing the boundary rope with ease, on occasion sending the ball out the ground, the pair took few risks with Adil Rashid, who offered