Birmingham: England all-rounder Moeen Ali who recently reversed his Test retirement reckoned that India will not win the final Test match against England as he feels that India’s best chance was last year, adding that England now have the momentum, quite opposite to India who he feels is a bit undercooked.
“If this series had finished off last year, India would’ve won it. If you had asked me 4-5 weeks ago, I would’ve said India would win. But now I feel (that) England will win. India are a little bit undercooked,” Moeen said on Tuesday from Birmingham.
“Last year, India had four games under their belt. This time they’ve had a practice game and some net sessions. At the moment, England, in my opinion, are the favourites, because they’ve just played three good Tests, and the way they are playing, they are very confident compared to last year. Their mindset has changed and they’re playing positive cricket. India will still be very difficult. They have a fantastic bowling side,” said Moeen.
Moeen also pointed out that India will miss the services of KL Rahul and regular captain Rohit Sharma, who were brilliant at the top of the order last year.
“I also feel that the combination with KL Rahul and Rohit, the way they were batting last year. . . they were the real problem (for England) because they were giving India great starts most of the time, seeing off the new ball. KL Rahul is a huge miss, and potentially Rohit will miss out. So, I believe that England are the favorites,” he said.
“I’ve played with McCullum at RCB, and we get along well. He called me as soon as he got the (England) job, just asking if I wanted to play (Test cricket). And how much fun it’s going to be, so, it wasn’t so much the fact that Root and Silverwood were the captain and coach. I think that the mindset changed with Stokes and McCullum taking over. The brand of cricket they’re looking to play is the sort of cricket I like playing.
“We were not playing well as a team, and were a bit disorganized etc…but these guys (Stokes and McCullum) really got the players (to perform well) so, that’s one of the big reasons why I want to play Tests again,” he said.
