India Flummoxed by Moeen Ali: Lack of Intent or Dearth of Skill?

A Test defeat inside three days, two innings that did not even last a grand total of 90 overs, repeated fielding errors, erroneous bowling changes, shoddy captaincy and yet another collapse against a part-time spinner selected essentially as a middle-order batsman. India's tour of England could not have come to a worse turn, especially after their historic victory at Lord's.

England felled India with spin, for the second successive Test. Not for the first time have the British beaten the masters of slow bowling in their own game. Back in 2012, it was the potent pair of Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar, who displayed a master-class on how to bowl on turning pitches. Cut to 2014, Moeen Ali, nowhere near the fame of Swann or Panesar on pitches nowhere near as dusty as the ones in India, made the ball spit venom against batsmen considered to be among the better players of spin bowling in the world. (Also read: Comprehensive Manchester win pleases Alastair Cook)

This was probably India's best chance to win a rare Test series in England, a golden opportunity to erase the horrors of the 2011 drubbing. And MS Dhoni's men made a sensational start, taking the series lead at the Mecca of Cricket. England and their captain Alastair Cook were demoralised and under intense scrutiny from the unrelenting English media. And all it took was an off-spinner, in his first year in international cricket, to rip through India's defence on the last morning at Southampton, for the hosts to bounce back.

The warning bells had of course started to ring earlier, on a placid, dull surface at Trent Bridge in the first Test, where Moeen finished with 3/105 in the drawn match and then followed up with 1/38 and 2/28 at Lord's. But in the euphoria of victory, the Ali threat was forgotten, rather conveniently. India were good players of spin and they were expected to come back and teach him a lesson.

Sunil Gavaskar, a run-scoring machine against bowlers of all ilk, was the first to notice; Ali had gained too much momentum and confidence as a spinner and it could hurt India. Star batsman Virat Kohli has had a horrid run against off-spinners and Ali exploited his uncertainty to the ball turning back in, brutally. Gavaskar, at the end of the penultimate day at the Rose Bowl, insisted India underestimated Ali and played against the spin too often. The off-spinner now has 19 wickets in the series, second only to James Anderson's 21. Did no one in the Indian team management notice where the batsmen were going wrong against him?

Ali is no Swann, experts kept yelling on air, distraught with India's implosion against Moeen Ali's gentle off-spinners. Former India skipper Sourav Ganguly, known for his disdainful treatment of off-spinners in his time, questioned India's defensive tactics against Ali, instead of taking the attack to him. On Saturday, as the tourists lost nine wickets in a session, four of them to Ali, only Ravichandran Ashwin showed some aggressive intent, ready to step out to the pitch of the ball and taking the aerial route.

Former India wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer felt Ali had been shown too much respect by the Indian batsmen, who have grown up playing more threatening spin at the club level. There was general disbelief and astonishment, even as Alastair Cook singled out Ali for special praise after England's win at Old Trafford.

Ali has of course had it easy thanks to Anderson and Stuart Broad's lethal spells with the new ball. Openers Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay continued to flop as a pair and Gautam Gambhir, naturally aggressive against spin, did not last not long enough in either innings in his comeback Test to try and counter Ali.

Gavaskar conceded Ali bowled a good line and got the ball to spin. But to allow him to run away with 19 wickets in four Tests on true pitches is inexcusable. Ali pocketed 6/67 and 4/39 to hasten India's defeats in the last two matches. The latter was taken on a day when India needed to just bat out one session and wait for Sunday rains to flood Old Trafford; the four wickets were snared on a surface that was still good to bat on. This should hurt India. If it doesn't, nothing ever will.

This Indian batting line-up has succeeded a generation which made Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan look ordinary. The incumbents have made Moeen Ali look great. The core of this group had also struggled against Swann and Panesar back in 2012 in familiar conditions at home.  There are stiffer challenges awaiting them in international cricket. What happens when they run into Rangana Herath and Saeed Ajmal? And India have still not learnt how to play on bouncy tracks.

So this is how India are placed. 'Gen X' are not particularly any better against fast bowling than their predecessors and are not a patch on them against spinners. Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay have some issues to resolve with the bat.

These are desperate times. Where are the desperate measures?