Moeen's mow reopens opener's debate

There is much to admire about this England team. They are a vibrant side who have played wonderfully engaging cricket over the last six months and also have an inner steel. However, they are also like a jigsaw puzzle that is proving infuriatingly difficult to complete.

It was always going to be a challenge for England to fiddle an XI to fit the conditions in the UAE, without a standout specialist spinner and with on-going doubts over who should open with Alastair Cook. Regardless of how strongly they finished in Abu Dhabi, there was always a chance cracks would emerge. It was never a watertight plan.

Three-down at the close of day four, there is still a glimmer of hope that they can escape with a draw, although if they do it will surpass Auckland in 2013, Cardiff 2009 and even Cape Town 2010. None of those matches featured a top-class legspinner. And still, in defeat or draw, the debates will follow.

The question of when patience should run out with a side like this will never have an answer that keeps everyone happy. As was the case on the third day, when the middle-order collapse ensured England would not win this match, there are reasons to temper criticism. At the same time, however, the big issues cannot be shied away from.

There are no two ways about it, the shot that Moeen Ali played at the beginning of the second innings - as England set out on the task of batting 144 overs to save a Test - was horrid, regardless of the fact that he is a new opener who had never even performed the role in first-class cricket before this tour. A full delivery, angled across him and outside off stump, which could have been left to pass through to the keeper, was instead attacked with a flamboyant drive and edged waist-high to second slip.

If Moeen's first-innings dismissal, popping a catch to short leg off the face of the bat, had a distinct slice of bad luck about it, this time it was entirely self-inflicted. Before the match Moeen had spoken of how he had enjoyed the opening experience in Abu Dhabi instead of the No. 8 role he occupied in the Ashes because it allowed him to leave the ball. His second-innings drive was all lower-order dasher. And this, too, with a hobbling captain at the other end.

"Against the new ball you perhaps have to be a little watchful," Paul Farbrace, England's assistant coach, said. "This is not a pitch for big shots and big drives, but we know that's how Mo looks to play and he's got to make sure he adapts his game to give himself the chance to bat for long periods of time. If he gets in he can obviously play his natural game."

He is not the first and won't be the last opener to be out driving at a full delivery - Adam Lyth, a specialist, made a habit of it during the Ashes. Promotion has also been tough on him. He was getting settled at No. 8, playing crucial match-seizing innings, and all of a sudden he is moved.

This is his 18th Test and he has already batted in six positions. Some of those shifts have been caused by nightwatchmen, but he has still been shuffled like a deck of cards. He could become this generation's Alec Stewart - always moved for the needs of team balance, regardless of whether it is the best thing for his own game. Never mind the fact he is also the senior spinner.

England seemingly came into the tour all but wedded to the plan of using Moeen. His rise from what, effectively, was the tail to walking out alongside Cook helped balance the side and allow Adil Rashid to play as the second spinner. It also allowed a six-man attack, which has helped combat the heat but, you suspect, was as much about providing cover for Rashid in case his introduction went awry.

"We are still wanting to see Mo bat for that [long] length of time. We think he's capable of doing it, we wouldn't have put him in just for the sake of getting a second spinner," Farbrace said. "We genuinely think he is capable of doing it, we've seen how much he's learned over the last 18 months of international cricket. He's improving all the time as a bowler and we want that same improvement with the bat.

"Yes, he hasn't scored the runs we want to him score so I'm not going to sit here and say we are really pleased. We want him to score more runs, so does he, and for it to be a long-term thing he has to score runs but that's the same with anybody in any position."

There were those, such as ESPNcricinfo pundit and former England opener, Mark Butcher, who were stridently against the move from the outset. Speaking on the Switch Hit podcast ahead of the series he raised concerns about the strain on Moeen being expected to do his role as a bowler and also cited the maxim that opening is a specialist job.

The first international sighting of Moeen in the role in Abu Dhabi had been cautiously positive, albeit on a deathly slow pitch at the time. He walked out after more than five sessions in the field but calmly negotiated the second evening with Cook and would go on to make 35 in an opening stand of 116. The second innings in that match should be ignored as England tried to chase against the light so he has had only three regulation innings. A lot is expected quickly of cricketers (not just England players) but few slot into a new position effortlessly.

"That's the thing with international cricket, every game you are being judged," Farbrace said. "I'd like to think we've been very much about giving people a period of time and haven't been chopping and changing, that's something Trevor [Bayliss] is very keen on. I'd like to think that Cooky and Trevor wouldn't have given Mo the chance if they didn't think he was capable and two games in we know he needs runs."

While it would be a surprise if Moeen was moved down the order for Sharjah, England do have a specialist opener in the squad. Alex Hales had one brief innings into the second warm-up match, but he has largely been restricted to nets and countless interval sessions of sprinting in the heat of the day, alongside the other reserve players.

However, in the longer - or even medium - term, the middle order should be Moeen's home. If Jonny Bairstow was given the gloves in place of the struggling Buttler then Moeen could bat at No. 5 and Hales could open. When England revert to five bowlers again, probably in South Africa, James Taylor could also find a middle-order berth.

It would seem Moeen's natural home, a halfway house, if you like, between the helter-skelter world of the lower reaches and a promotion that has proven too unfamiliar for him to learn on the job. In the meantime he should remember the value of the leave-alone. Cricket's most under-rated stroke. No doubt he was pondering that as he walked off the Dubai pitch.