Heart rules head as Stokes places faith in Moeen

For an hour after lunch on day two at Edgbaston, the 'never-say-draw' philosophy England have both preached and practiced over the past year was seemingly facing its first sustained counter-revolution.

After his men had tightened their grip on the Ashes opener thanks to a rollicking morning spell from Stuart Broad and a burst of his own incandescent brilliance, skipper Ben Stokes found himself confronted by the sort of challenge Australia had faced yesterday.

Travis Head, the batter considered most likely to fight 'Bazball' with a similar brand of 'Head-On' had taken up the offer to go after England's captain's choice spinner Moeen Ali, and was clearly winning the contest.

As Moeen – who had quit Test cricket two years ago and not so much as seen a red ball until Stokes sent him a personal request to reconsider a fortnight ago – wheeled away unchanged from the City End following the break, Head helped himself to a steady serving of boundaries.

After playing out a respectful maiden immediately after resumption – the eighth of Australia's innings, a four-fold increase on the tally their bowlers managed across a full day on Friday – Head found his range with a lofted drive to the mid-on rope.

Next over brought a slap drive through extra cover that yielded four more, followed by a punishing cut when Moeen understandably – given both the batter's mood, and his lack of recent first-class bowling – dragged down a flatter, faster ball.

Head was clearly relishing Moeen's gentle off-spin being delivered from around the wicket with only occasional bouts of spin from the bone dry pitch, given it presented a release from the sustained bouncer barrage he was copping from Broad then Ollie Robinson operating at the other end.

But whereas Australia had instinctively flexed every time England's batters came at them with similar audacity on day one, Stokes not only remained unfazed by Head's boundary blitz, he actively welcomed it.

When the Player of the Series from the previous Ashes meeting 18 months ago clubbed another lofted drive over the mid-on fielder, Stokes engaged in a prolonged round of above-the-head applause for his spinner rather than opting to stem the bleeding and send a fielder back to the fence.

With Head prepared to take on the short stuff despite getting himself into ungainly positions and copping the occasional blow to the upper body, England's skipper backed his team to ultimately win the battle of bravado and effectively buy a fourth wicket.

Those who have watched Stokes' leadership evolve as the legend of England's no-fear Test outfit has grown claim an under-rated element of 'Bazball' is how canny his captaincy has been, with an almost unerring instinct to pull the right rein at the correct juncture.

On the eve of his maiden Ashes campaign in charge, Stokes admitted he placed great faith in gut feeling when orchestrating changes.

Which explained the cryptic one-word text message – that read simply 'Ashes?' – he sent Moeen when news of a back stress fracture to first-choice spinner Jack Leach was confirmed.

"That was a stomach and a heart feeling, rather than my brain," Stokes said last Thursday.

"Generally I have stuck with my heart and my gut throughout my captaincy so far.

"Moeen Ali is going to come in here and I am looking at what he can offer on his best days, and not worry about anything else."

From the early evidence, the 35-year-old off-spinner wasn't offering a lot beyond a run rate of around five an over, on par with England's batting innings.

Moeen had conceded pre-game that Australia would go after him and he expected to cop some stick, but his inability to land the ball on the white towel placed on practice pitches prior to the game and again before play began today would have given many a more traditional skipper some angst.

However, as any Brit with more than a fleeting interesting in cricket will offer – whether prompted or otherwise – Stokes is far from a traditional skipper.

To the extent that, with Head swinging square against the seamers' short balls and going big against Moeen's gentle tweakers, Stokes vacated land between the pitch and the leg-side boundary when Usman Khawaja was on strike to allow him a simple single and get Head back to the business end.

While Australia spent much of day one trying to fathom ways that England's aggression might be stymied, Stokes saw that Head's increasingly extravagant strokeplay was his best hope of getting him out on a pitch that offered little to his bowlers as the afternoon sun broke through.

To watch Stokes marshal his men in the field is to witness the very essence of modern captaincy, with the constant tinkering to placements, bowling options and degrees of difference redolent of the T20 format where every delivery is a potentially game-changing performance piece.

At one stage when Robinson was bowling, Stokes positioned himself at mid-off and Broad at regulation mid-on with Khawaja on strike, only to swap around and send Broad to shortish extra cover while the captain stationed at wide mid-on for Head after a single was taken.

When Head pushed for one next ball, the fielding pair swapped back and then - with Khawaja taking another run a delivery later – the switch was executed again.

Having batted throughout day two to finish unbeaten on 126, Khawaja conceded he was constantly tinkering with his batting plans and his set-up at the crease to compensate for the ever-changing tactics Stokes was trying.

And he noted he saw the clear influence of Stokes' fellow New Zealander, now England coach, Brendon McCullum in the kaleidoscope of ideas that were trotted out across 90 overs yesterday.

"I know Stokesy is his own man, I love that he does things his own way but there's definitely a hint of 'Baz' McCullum in there," Khawaja said at day's end.

"I played against Baz when he was captaining New Zealand and it was a very similar thing.

"At one stage I remember he put everyone on the off-side, and then next ball he put everyone on the leg side.

"I think Stokesy's taken a little bit of that for his own thing, but the fact is I like how Stokesy does it his own way.

"He challenges the game, he challenges people in different ways, his bowlers too and us batsmen while we're batting.

"We're here to entertain and I think that stuff is extremely entertaining, and you love watching it."

Even after Head lifted Moeen into the crowd over long-off, emboldening Khawaja to do the same in the spinner's next over, Stokes retained faith in the veteran allrounder whose most recent Test wicket had come against India at The Oval 21 months earlier.

And just as his captain knew it would be, that belief was repaid.

Three balls after he reached 50, and having missed out on a couple of attempts to maintain his batting barrage against Moeen, Head went to the well once too often and miscued an attempted on-side swipe into the hands of Zak Crawley at midwicket.

The euphoric huddle that formed around Moeen partly reflected the significance of the breakthrough, but also showed the genuine fraternal enthusiasm for Moeen's moment of triumph after opting to become a white-ball only player in 2021.

After he had been mobbed and back-slapped and high-fived by his other teammates, a beaming Stokes stood in front of Moeen and the pair's mutual delight was palpable.

It might have been an even bigger party two balls later had Jonny Bairstow gloved the stumping chance offered by new batter Cameron Green as he tried to pick up where Head left off against the spinner, and instead found himself stranded a metre down the pitch.

But Moeen's effort came at a cost, sending down 29 overs (including 18 on the trot) which meant he was nursing a clearly sore spinning finger on his right hand by close of play.

"I think spinners generally get wear and tear on the fingers, that's part and parcel of a spinner's job," England assistant coach Paul Collingwood said after stumps when asked if Moeen's ailment might impact his capacity to bowl on subsequent days.

"They grip the seam and give it a rip and I think all spinners have blisters and callouses on their spinning fingers, so he's no different to anybody else.

"I think you've just to grin and bear it, and crack on and just try and give it a rip as much as he can."

2023 Qantas Ashes Tour of the UK

First Test: Friday June 16-Tuesday June 20, Edgbaston

Second Test: Wednesday June 28-Sunday July 2, Lord’s

Third Test: Thursday July 6-Monday July 10, Headingley

Fourth Test: Wednesday July 19-Sunday July 23, Old Trafford

Fifth Test: Thursday July 27-Monday 31, The Oval

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood