Moeen naturally more of a leader than vice-captain: Panesar

Jaipur, Aug 4 (SocialNews.XYZ) England hold an unassailable 2-0 lead in the ongoing ODI series against Ireland with the third match to be played on Tuesday at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton.

Apart from creating a brief scare for England in the second ODI, the Irish have failed to create an impact in this series, which also marks the launch of the World Cup Super League to determine qualification for the 2023 50-over showpiece in India. This is also the first ODI series since cricket began in early July in England with the West-Indies taking on the Three Lions in a three-match Test series.

In the ongoing series, Ireland's top-order batsmen have not been in the best of forms with newcomer Curtis Campher being the only positive for them who scored back to back half-centuries.

Former England spinner Monty Panesar previewed the third match as he spoke in the inaugural episode of SportsTiger's series 'Cricket Talks with Monty Panesar'. He mentioned that England would not probably want to change the winning momentum by bringing in a lot of changes but also felt with the series already in their kitty, England have the opportunity to fix their loose ends and test their bench strength in the final game.

"It's an opportunity to play some of the youngsters and see what they are like and I think this is the perfect chance during the third ODI." Monty said. "I would like to see Moeen Ali captain the third ODI. I think he is naturally more of a leader than a vice-captain. Even Eoin Morgan can be rested or try a change in captaincy and see what Moeen Ali's captaincy is like".

Panesar also backed Sam Billings who has replaced injured Joe Denly in the series and has been the standout batsman for England. "Whenever Billings is playing in an ODI, he looks very comfortable. It surprises me that why isn't he in the line-up; he should be an automatic selection in the top six for the team. Now, with these performances, I would expect him to be there for sure."

The former left-arm spinner also felt that Ireland would have a lot of learning to take from this series, especially when playing against Test-playing nations.

"Ireland will learn a lot about their cricket, where it stands at the moment and where it needs to go. One area of concern is that they keep getting out to left-arm seam bowling of David Willey and Reece Topley. So, they have not really worked out a game-plan.

"Irish cricket will always come up with some sort of struggles against the bigger nations. So, they will have to work out a game plan for that," he added.

Source: IANS