England's opening woes: Alastair Cook's opening partners since 2012

7. Moeen Ali

Moeen Ali averaged 14 as an opener in 6 Test innings

England played a 3 match Test series against Pakistan in UAE in 2015 and the hunt of an opener to partner Cook continued. The team management decided to experiment by sending Moeen Ali who was a handy middle-order batsman to open the innings against Pakistan in spin-friendly conditions in UAE.

Moeen Ali suffered the same fate as Cook's previous 6 partners and in 6 innings, he could score only 84 runs at an average of 14. Ali really struggled as an opener and was sent back to bat in the middle order in England's next assignment.

Ali is a handy batsman who averages 32.40 in 85 Test innings and has 5 Test centuries to his credit. However, the mistake of sending him as an opener hurt England in 2015.