Australia’s Mitchell Johnson celebrates the dismissal of England’s Joe Root during the second Ashes Test at Lord’s last week. (Reuters)

By Chris Stocks/The Guardian

Give most professional sportspeople a week off and they are more likely to hit Las Vegas than head to the local community centre in the area where they grew up. Moeen Ali, though, is no ordinary sportsman. Three days have passed since England’s crushing 405-run defeat in the second Ashes Test at Lord’s but Moeen is in decidedly chipper mood as he holds court at the Faithful Neighbourhood Centre in Sparkhill, Birmingham.
Perhaps it is the belief that he would be working in one of the many nearby takeaways were he not taking on Australia that allows the 28-year old to keep the challenge of facing Mitchell Johnson et al in such calm perspective.
“If I wasn’t doing this, I’d be working in a chippy,” he says. “Cricket can change your life. It can teach you a lot about discipline and life in general. Cricket is a great sport for that. It makes you a lot more aware about things. Coming from this area it makes you streetwise. When you go into cricket you have to be streetwise.”
That is something England patently were not at Lord’s, sucked in by a surface that offered little to no assistance to their seam bowlers and then spat out by the pace of an Australia attack that rendered the pitch irrelevant.
Despite England’s catastrophic batting failures in that second Test, where they were routed for 103 in their second innings, it is worth remembering the series is still level at 1-1. However, being more streetwise – and, crucially, showing character in the face of such hostility – will be key when they turn up at Edgbaston for next week’s third Test.
“The sad thing is we didn’t show any fight,” said Moeen. “We rolled over and never showed the fight we needed to show. Even if we were going to lose we should have showed a bit more steel.”
Mind games are all part of the circus that surrounds the Ashes and John Howard, the former Australian prime minister and self-confessed “cricket tragic”, pitched in with his own contribution at an event at London’s King’s College on Tuesday evening, claiming England’s batsmen have “psychological problems” dealing with the pace battery led by Johnson.
While Howard’s views on the Ashes are about as relevant as those of David Warner on the Greek banking crisis, Moeen was keen to return serve by reminding Australia that England dealt with Johnson and company rather well during their 169-run win in the opening Test of the series in Cardiff.
 “We had a couple of bad starts but every batter has got some sort of score whereas them guys have only Chris Rogers, Steve Smith and David Warner,” said Moeen. “Not all of them have got runs. I know he [Johnson] bowled really well in one innings out of four. But at Cardiff we took it to him and he went for a lot of runs and did not take many wickets. We are not worried at all.”
In fact, Moeen is relishing the challenge of facing Australia, even if their batsmen are intent on hitting his spin out of the park and their pace attack plan to pepper him with bouncers due to a belief he has a weakness against the short ball. “I feel like the only way I can get through it is by enjoying it,” he says. “If they come after me and my bowling you get a bit down. But when I am fielding I think about it and there are worse things that can happen. I take in the atmosphere a bit and think this is not too bad.”
Moeen’s friends and family will turn out in force at Edgbaston next week, a stone’s throw from where the Worcestershire all-rounder was supporting a Chance to Shine Street cricket initiative on Wednesday. “It will be great,” he says. “It’s my home city, where I grew up, and I’m really looking forward to it.”
It was at Edgbaston last September where Moeen was booed during a Twenty20 international against India, his Pakistani heritage the trigger for a reception from a largely Anglo-Indian crowd. “Obviously I was upset,” said Moeen. “It was more because it was my home city but I’m over it now and I’m not expecting to get booed in this game.”
Jonny Bairstow has been parachuted into England’s squad for the third Test after an outstanding summer for Yorkshire. While Bairstow averages 108.89 with the bat in domestic first-class cricket this summer, his return at Test level is a more modest 26.95 and Moeen admits that is a reflection of the huge gulf in class between county and international cricket.
“The standard is completely different,” he said. “Getting there is quite hard but once you’re there that’s when you really get tested.”
It is still better than wrapping chips, though, although Moeen quite fancies entering the fast-food trade rather than entering the commentary box when he retires from cricket. “I think once I finish playing cricket I am going to open a chippy round here and call it Big Mo’s,” he says.
Before that, though, Moeen will be hoping to chip in with plenty more wickets and runs to help England fry Australia this summer.