Moeen Ali believes Harry Brook and Brendon McCullum can quieten their critics by leading England to the T20 World Cup final – but the all-rounder warned that reaching the semi-finals is a bare minimum.
Brook’s nightclub fracas in Wellington the day before a match against New Zealand on Halloween and the subsequent botched cover-up has led to calls for him to be replaced as England’s white-ball captain.
While McCullum has this week staunchly defended Brook, England’s head coach is himself in the dock after a 4-1 Ashes defeat, coupled with claims he has allowed a drinking culture and lax attitudes to develop on his watch.
Both claims have been flat-out rejected by the former New Zealand captain but Moeen knows a deep run in India and Sri Lanka in the next few weeks will be the only way to take the sting out of the attacks.
“It’s been a difficult winter, if we make the final there’s a lot more pressure off people – but they have to make the semi-finals,” Moeen told the Press Association.
“I know there’s a lot of talk about a drinking culture but people have only brought it up because we lost. It’s not as bad as people make out a lot of the time. If we’d won, nobody would have said anything.”
The off-field headlines do not appear to have distracted Brook, who has overseen ODI and T20 series wins in Sri Lanka to give England some momentum ahead of their World Cup opener against Nepal in Mumbai on Sunday.
Brook has played some astonishing innings to underline his status as an all-format star, but he has done so from the middle-order, having never batted higher than number four in the order in T20s.
Moeen feels his new Yorkshire team-mate would be more valuable to England at three, coming in instead of Jacob Bethell when one of Jos Buttler and Phil Salt are dismissed.
“With the batting order, it doesn’t feel right but we’ve played OK,” Moeen, who won the 2019 50-over and 2022 T20 World Cup with England, said.
“I think Bethell is fine at three but I would put our best three players up top and they are Salt, Jos and Brook.
“Brook already is one of the best players in the world. Not to put any pressure on him but he could dominate international cricket for the next 10 years, easily.”
Moeen has some concerns over England’s attack and readily admits they are likely to be heavily reliant on leg-spinner Adil Rashid, the world number four T20 bowler, and express paceman Jofra Archer.
“Adil’s in a league of his own and has been for some time,” Moeen said. “We need Jof to bowl well because he’s the one guy that has that X-factor.
“Our bowling is a little bit light, we’ve just got to be smart with it and use the bowlers really well. That’s where I fear for our bowling a little bit.”
Moeen was speaking in his role as a Sky Sports pundit and he is set to team up with the broadcaster and great friend Rashid for a two-part series, delving into spin this summer.
“You’ll get more from Rash because he’s got a lot more skills and variations,” Moeen added. “Mine will be more on off-spin and the mindset of an off-spinner, especially in T20 cricket. I’m looking forward to that.”
:: Sky Sports is the exclusive home of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, showing all matches live between February 7 through to the final on March 8. Also available on NOW.
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