IPL 2021: Moeen Ali – Breaking the Chennai mould
In their first match of IPL 2021, against Delhi Capitals, Chennai Super Kings found themselves in early trouble. They lost both their openers in just 13 balls with only seven runs on the board. And surprise, surprise, Moeen Ali walked out to bat at number three. The left-handed all-rounder swatted his bat around and returned with a score of 36 from 24 balls, providing early momentum. Chennai lost the game and Moeen cemented his spot.
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It all began at the IPL 2021 auction. Chennai Super Kings missed out on signing a big-hitting all-rounder who could bowl off-spin, Glenn Maxwell. They continued their pursuit once Moeen Ali’s name popped in the event. Fighting hard against Punjab Kings, Chennai bought Ali for seven crores from his base price of two crores.
The reason behind Chennai’s hunt was simple. They had sorely missed an off-spinner in IPL 2020, which proved to be their worst season. With Harbhajan Singh backing out, the Men in Yellow had no spinner to counter the left-handed batsmen. Hence their aim in the IPL 2021 auction was crystal clear and they achieved it.
L Balaji, CSK’s bowling coach, reflecting on the signing said, “We were focusing on an allrounder and power-hitting. Moeen is a good buy. He is handy with the ball and also can bat in the top order. [Shane] Watson gave us that flexibility in the top order. Now Moeen gives us depth and the option of a dual role – [I’m] 100% sure he’ll fill in what we’re looking at.”
Like Glenn Maxwell at RCB, Moeen Ali has a clear and well-defined role at CSK. And it is working wonders for both teams so far.#IPL2021 #CSKvRR #RCBvKKR pic.twitter.com/AgUrbTI7LH
— CricBlog ✍ (@cric_blog) April 20, 2021
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This is Ali’s fourth IPL season. In the first three, he represented Royal Challengers Bangalore. In IPL 2019, Ali played 11 matches for Kohli’s team. To their credit, Bangalore used the all-rounder in the top order. He was sent at number three, he was sent to open and was also employed at number four and five. Ali returned decent numbers. In IPL 2020, he featured in only three encounters where he scored 12 runs. The disappointing performance saw him leaving RCB.
Chennai Super Kings are not a team who are known for experimenting a lot. MS Dhoni as a captain backs his tried and tested players and shows immense confidence in them. Hence the demotion of Suresh Raina was surprising. Known as Mister IPL, Rain has been a run-machine for the Men in Yellow. However, with his lack of match-time in international cricket, he isn’t the force he used to be.
In these circumstances, Ali’s promotion at number three has proved to be a masterstroke. He has scored 108 runs in his three outings with a strike rate of 144. His bowling has been a bonus. Three of his four wickets came against Rajasthan Royals where he took two wickets in one over.
Explaining the motive behind the move, MS Dhoni revealed, “We felt if Moeen Ali bats up the order, we can make use of the resources that we got. Moeen is a very good timer of the ball and plays authentic shots. We have to make the most of the resources.”
Chennai have begun IPL 2021 with two victories in their first three matches. IPL 2020 was a blot on their record as it was the first time that they failed to qualify for the playoffs. With optimising their resources, the Chennai squad is all set to make IPL 2020 an exception.
