Ashes 2023: England greats warn Ben Stokes of Moeen Ali, say he has got some 'real issues'

Why you're reading this: England finished Day 3 of the inaugural Ashes 2023 Test at 28/2 and lead by 35 runs over Australia. The English team has first innings centurion Joe Root and Ollie Pope at the crease and will hope to take a big lead on the fourth day. The visitors finished their first innings at 386 and trailed by 7 runs. 

3 things you need to know

• The inaugural Ashes 2023 Test is being played at Edgbaston in Birmingham
• Usman Khawaja was the top scorer of Australia's first innings and played a knock of 141 runs in 321 balls
• England achieved a score of 393/8 d in their first innings 

Moeen Ali's average performance on Test comeback 

The English cricket team was put under pressure by the Aussies on Day Two when Usman Khawaja played a knock of unbeaten 126 runs and also took the Aussies to a score of 311/5 at the end of the second day. Moeen Ali, who returned to the Test team after coming out of his retirement, gave an average performance and only took two wickets in the first innings. Moeen took the wickets of Travis Head and Cameron Green on Day Two, but could not take any wickets on Day 3 while displaying an average bowling performance throughout the innings. 

Former England skippers Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain were not impressed with Moeen Ali's performance in the inaugural ENG vs AUS Ashes 2023 Test and showed their concerns about Moeen's spin finger. While speaking on Sky Sports,  they also believed that the right-hand off-spinner is struggling with an injury, which also highlighted the fact that the 36-year-old has not bowled regularly with the red Dukes ball. 

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Reflecting on Moeen Ali applying spray on his finger, Michael Atherton said: 

Applying the spray, it is revealed that Moeen has a problem with his spinning finger as he is not playing red-ball cricket. He will have to bowl a lot in this Test match and in the series as well. 

Nasser Hussain also voiced his opinion 

That's the whole debate about the difference between the white ball and test cricket. Jonny Bairstow didn't kept that much in Test cricket and we saw the sloppiness after day one in the field. Moeen hasn't bowled with the red Dukes ball for a long time.

Moeen Ali was brought into the team as a replacement for injured Jack Leach and had come out of retirement. He retired from Test cricket after the fourth Test match vs India in September 2021 and since then, Moeen has remained inactive in the red-ball format, until now.

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The all-rounder was also fined 25 percent of the match fees for breaching Article 2.20 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel. The 36-year-old was spotted applying a dry substance to his bowling hand while fielding on the boundary line without informing the umpire.