'Haven't done myself justice with bat' - Moeen

Moeen Ali has admitted he lost confidence in his batting after moving down the order for England.

Moeen made his name in county cricket as a top-order batsman. He opened the batting in his first international match - an ODI against West Indies in Antigua in 2014 - and then batted at No. 3 in the T20 side and at No. 6 when he first came into the Test side.

But, as his international career has developed, so his spin bowling has taken priority over his batting. He fell behind Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler in the Test line-up and, despite making two centuries as an ODI opener - one of them a 72-ball effort against Sri Lanka - he lost his position at the start of the summer of 2015 when the selectors left him out of the ODI team so he could work on his red ball bowling.

Alex Hales and Jason Roy subsequently established a dynamic partnership in his place and, since his return to the side in the lower middle-order, he has not passed 21 in ODI cricket. Only once in his last eight T20I innings has he made double-figures; four times in that period he has been dismissed for a duck.

He did have a brief spell as Test opener in the UAE, but was left more confused than ever by what was required of him in a team that, in successive Tests, batted him at No. 9, No. 8 and No. 9, before three Tests at opener were followed by a move back down to No. 8.

While Moeen understands the reasons for his position in the line-up, he has found it challenging to retain his identity as a batsman.

"If you want to be good at something, you have to believe," Moeen said. "And I went through a phase where I probably didn't believe I was a top-order batter.

"I didn't practise it as much, because I felt like my bowling was keeping in the team. I definitely haven't done myself justice with the bat at Test level. I have shown glimpses in all three formats, but I have not done as well as I want. I know I can do better."

Part of the problem comes with being required to bat with the tail. Reasoning that he may not have time to play himself in, Moeen has often felt the need to attack from the start. While that has, at times, had positive results - most notably in the Ashes - it has seen him turn into something of a lower-order slugger rather than the classy player he once threatened to be. It is understandable from the perspective of the team's needs, but the suspicion remains that England are not getting the best out of him with the bat.

Certainly he has, at times, looked a long way below the standards he set in making a high-class century in his second Test. That innings, played against Sri Lanka almost exactly two years ago, took England to the brink of a memorable - and unlikely - draw.

"I was more confident then," he said, "because I'd come back from a couple of years of county cricket where I'd scored well.

I just remember telling myself I wasn't going to get out the night before. I've done it for Worcester. I was actually surprised we did it for so long. It was a good effort. But I've not been batting that much or that well since.

"The hardest thing is obviously batting at No. 8. If you're batting with Jonny Bairstow, you can play normally, and Stuart Broad is batting quite well at the moment. But then you get lower down…"

Moeen feels that a return to Worcestershire for the start of this season has helped him rediscover his confidence. He has batted at No. 3 in three Championship matches and, in scoring a century and two half-centuries, goes into the Investec Test series against Sri Lanka averaging 91 so far this season.

"Going back to Championship cricket, batting at three, I feel like I'm back to how I was," he said. "I do feel that I'm ready again. I feel like a proper batter again. The batting and the bowling are coming together."

That return to Worcestershire almost didn't happen. He originally entered the IPL auction only to withdraw after Andrew Strauss, England's director of cricket, asked him to.

"I'm actually glad I didn't go in the end," Moeen said. "England just said 'we'd rather you played red-ball cricket'. It made sense in the end. I had a bit of a break and then played three Championship games. I obviously wanted to get ready for the Test matches."

He is talking to publicise the new NatWest T20 Blast season that beings - ridiculously - on the second day of the first Test next week. Moeen, like the rest of England's top players, may well be limited to just one or two games in the group stages with the ECB announcing that, fitness permitting, every contracted player will be available for Blast action from June 15 to June 18.

While he talks with great passion about the Blast, he is among many of the England players who feel that a city-based competition would improve the standard and spark new interest.

"We'd love to be playing the T20 Blast as much as we can," he said. "I played a bit last year, and I absolutely loved it. We miss a big chunk of it, and that's a bit disappointing. But it's the way it is.

"It would be sad [if Worcestershire disappeared from a city-based competition], but personally I would love a franchise system. The standard would improve and although not everyone in domestic cricket would play - that's the biggest shame about it - I think it would be good for the league and good for England."