Well, Moeen Ali is back, for the first two Test matches at least. Here is a thought on how to use him. Don’t let him bowl in the first innings.
Moeen is one of those spin bowlers who is very much better later in the game than he is earlier. If you want someone to bowl tightly in the first innings Moeen is not your man. In the opposition’s first innings Moeen takes his wickets at 46.15. In the second innings he takes them at 28.85.
He’s not the only spinner to be better on a wearing pitch, of course. It’s true of Jack Leach too (45 in the first innings, 25 in the second). It was true of John Emburey (45 and 28), Phil Tufnell (45 and 29), Ashley Giles (44 and 36) and Monty Panesar (42 and 27).
It’s not necessarily true of spin bowlers in general, though. It’s not just what happens. Derek Underwood (29 and 22) and Graeme Swann (31 and 28) were good no matter what time it was and it wasn’t true of Phillipe Henri Edmonds either (35 and 32). Australia will be fielding a spin bowler, Nathan Lyon, of whom it is not really true either (33 and 28). It seems that the better the bowler the narrower the divergence between the first and second innings.
The obvious solution is to only let Moeen bowl when he is any good. In the first innings of a Test match he takes his wickets at 52.53. In the fourth innings of a match he has 59 wickets at 22.49. Don’t be tempted by rubbish Moeen. Wait for good Moeen. That plan is only possible, of course, if some other fourth bowler is available in the first innings and Ben Stokes does not look like that man at the moment.
That’s why I’d pick four seamers instead.