Can the Indian team 'beard' the new lion?

MANCHESTER: It is not easy to steal the limelight from James Anderson, who is tipped to become England's leading wicket-taker in Tests at The Oval. Anderson, who will be playing his 99th Test, has 376 wickets under his belt and needs eight more to surpass Ian Botham's tally of 383.

Anderson, with 20 wickets already in the series and two Man-of-the-Match awards under his belt, is a leading contender for the Man-of-the-Series trophy. But Anderson is facing serious competition - not from his fellow-pacers or Indian rivals - from a very unlikely quarter.

Moeen Ali, whose presence in the England line-up is primarily because of his ability to give the cricket ball a fair tweak and his gutsy batting, has surprised all cricket pundits by dismissing as many as 19 Indian batsmen in four Tests.

Lest his heroics in Southampton, where he picked up six for 67 to spin India out in the second innings, be deemed as a fluke, the bearded all-rounder plucked out four more at Old Trafford to hasten India's downfall.

The ease with which he has fooled some of the best players of spin bowling has confounded experts. He is no Graeme Swann, nor is he in the same league as Monty Panesar, but Ali has proved to be a handful. The stuff he bowls is not as complicated as the Gaza issue in whose support he had worn wristbands before being ordered by the ICC to take them off.

His clever change of pace and trajectory has been pretty effective so far. It is also pleasing to see him getting a bit of drift. He has become somewhat of a cult figure among English fans. At his home county Worcestershire, fans have been sporting T-shirts with "the beard that is feared" written on it. Incidentally, Moeen has picked up the nuances of off-spin from his senior Worcestershire teammate, Pakistan's Saaed Ajmal whose bowling action has been called into question by the ICC.

England are hoping that Moeen has not picked up the 'wrong ones' from Ajamal and will play a crucial role at The Oval, where spinners traditionally get a lot of purchase.

Indian batsmen have to find a way to beard this English 'lion' if they want to square the series.

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