Moeen Ali will be 36 by the time the 2023 World Cup comes around and with his indifferent recent form, host Yas Rana asked whether England should look at other off-spinners with the 2023 tournament in mind. While there are obvious left-arm spin alternatives to Moeen, England may want to persist with a second spinner who turns the ball in the opposite direction to their strike twirler, Adil Rashid. Here is how the conversation unfolded:

Yas Rana: Looking at the group that won England the World Cup and looking ahead at how they may look in 2023 they’ve already discarded Liam Plunkett, harshly perhaps, Eoin Morgan will be 37 or 38 by the time the next World Cup comes around – and England have plenty of potential middle order batsmen to replace him by them. But Moeen Ali, who had a poor series here, will be 36. One run and no wickets for Moeen in the series. Is it worth England at least looking at who else is out there? Who is out there?

Ben Gardner: Well that’s the thing. Finger spinners, left-armers, there are a couple of those. Liam Dawson would not let England down. Dawson would offer more with the bat now than Moeen would, that’s sad to say but it’s the case. Lewis Goldsworthy impressed at the Under-19 World Cup, I’m not saying, ‘throw him in for a debut’ but who knows whether in four years time that he could be a bolter. But these are left-arm spinners…

YR: Danny Briggs as well. He’s always done well in county cricket

BG: But we were looking at the Royal London One-Day Cup and the leading off-spinner there last season was Gareth Batty who’s also going to struggle to make it to the next World Cup. That’s if England want someone to turn the ball in the opposite direction to Rashid, which they might well do. It’s a really tricky one. I’m not sure who the next cab off the rank is but I guess the other side to that is that it’s a real opportunity for a young spinner to do a lot and make a name for themselves.

YR: Every time I watch Dom Bess I think, ‘He’d be a really a good ODI bowler.’ He bats well, fields well, accurate with the ball.

Phil Walker: Has he done much for Somerset?

YR: He’s not played a whole lot of one-day cricket and he’s not done that well when he has played but he’s not been given a huge number of opportunities. If I were Ed Smith I would be tempted to chuck him into an ODI squad because looking ahead, I can’t think of an off-spinner in county cricket who could do that job.