England allrounder declares he is not fazed by the prospect of facing Nathan Lyon in the one-day arena, despite his struggles against the off-spinner during the Ashes
England's Moeen ready to tame Lyon
Moeen Ali has vowed to tame Australia's Nathan Lyon if the England star comes face to face with his nemesis in the forthcoming one-day international series.
Lyon dismissed Moeen seven times across Australia's 4-0 Ashes series win, but now the Worcestershire player believes he is in position to make amends should he come up against the off-spinner during the Qantas tour of India.
England will launch their five-match 50-over series against Australia at The Oval on Wednesday, although Moeen may have to wait for his chance to get one back on Lyon, with left-arm spinner Ashton Agar the tourists' first-choice ODI tweaker.
"He's bowled really well and got me out a few times," said Moeen of Lyon. "But you don't get medals for getting guys out all the time. Who cares? I'm just moving on.
"When we played in the Ashes in England, he never got me out once and nobody said anything. You just get on with it."
Lyon has revealed his stint with Moeen at Worcestershire allowed him to gain some important batting intelligence on the England man.
"I remember one comment from (Worcestershire players) Ben Cox and Brett D'Oliveira," Lyon recalled recently to cricket.com.au. "They said 'Moeen Ali will try and hit a spinner out of the game and try and hit a boundary in his first over'.
"If you look back to the fields I had against Moeen Ali (during the Ashes), it was probably not the conventional left-hander's field. I had a deep mid-off, a deep cow corner and a deep square leg.
"I tried to take his boundary options out of it and see if he wanted to play the quiet game and try and nurdle me around.
"He's an explosive player and I rate him quite highly. It was more of a mental game, to take the big shots out of it and get him defending a lot more balls where he's more likely to make a mistake."
Moeen isn't losing sleep over the issue.
"If you look at a few of my dismissals, you'd probably know that anyway," he said.
"It doesn't take Einstein to work that out. You don't have to be that clever to work that out. Just get on with it.
"He bowled really well at me, I found him difficult in Australia but one-day cricket is different. I'm in a different mindset at the moment to what I was then."
Qantas tours of England and Zimbabwe
ODI squad: Tim Paine (c), Aaron Finch (vc), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Travis Head, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Shaun Marsh, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye
England ODI squad: Eoin Morgan (c), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Tom Curran, Alex Hales, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes (injured), David Willey, Chris Woakes (injured), Mark Wood
T20 squad: Aaron Finch (c), Alex Carey (vc), Ashton Agar, Travis Head, Nic Maddinson, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Andrew Tye, Jack Wildermuth
Qantas Tour of England
June 7: Australia beat Sussex by 57 runs at Hove
June 9: Australia beat Middlesex by 101 runs at Lord's
June 13: First ODI, The Oval (D/N)
June 16: Second ODI, Cardiff
June 19: Third ODI, Trent Bridge (D/N)
June 21: Fourth ODI, Durham (D/N)
June 24: Fifth ODI, Old Trafford
June 27: Only T20, Edgbaston (D/N)
Qantas T20I tri-series Tour of Zimbabwe
July 1: Zimbabwe vs Pakistan
July 2: Pakistan vs Australia
July 3: Australia vs Zimbabwe
July 4: Zimbabwe vs Pakistan
July 5: Pakistan vs Australia
July 6: Australia vs Zimbabwe
July 8: Final