T20 2018: Good time for Bengaluru to try Moeen Ali against Kolkata

Moeen Ali

Kuldeep Yadav, Piyush Chawla and Sunil Narine couldn't have got to Bangalore any faster, albeit they are all spinners. The ball has been spinning and gripping so much on the Chinnaswamy Stadium surfaces on offer thus far that that any spinner worth his salt should be queuing up to bowl.

Then again Chennai's trio of Harbhajan Singh, Ravindra Jadeja and Imran Tahir too must have thought the same until AB de Villiers happened to them. The South African countered everything that was bowled at him, not by blocking, but by going on a six-hitting spree.

That was indeed a special effort and none of the bowlers could be blamed. On the other hand, Yuzvendra Chahal was almost unplayable, why even someone like MS Dhoni chose to play him out with singles. The point to be noted though is that only the better spinners can thrive, the not-so-good ones such as Pawan Negi, spin or no spin, will still go for runs against these marauders they call batsmen.

Perhaps time then for hosts Bangalore, never shy to ring in the changes to their playing XI, to give Moeen Ali a go in Sunday's game against the Kolkata. That he's a decent off-spinner has been proved and of course he can bat too. And in any case Virat Kohli didn't bother to use Colin de Grandhomme with the ball in the Chennai game while his other seaming all-rounder Corey Anderson went for plenty, so either could be benched in favour of Ali and no one would really notice.

Whatever the combination, its near crunch time for the hosts. They have to start winning and winning consistently, else they can kiss their chances of advancing in the tournament goodbye.

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