MOEEN Ali is convinced he’s still the man to replace Graeme Swann as England’s front-line spinner.

For now, though, he concedes he’s first and foremost a batsman after being dropped for this month’s Royal London ODI series with New Zealand.

The Worcestershire all-rounder has been told to head back to his county and concentrate on four-day cricket after a Test series in which he largely misfired with the ball.

After taking three wickets in the first innings of an England win at Lord’s, Ali took just one more in the rest of the two-Test series – at the expense of 156 runs.

Save for James Tredwell, who earned just his second Test appearance in April while Ali was injured, there are precious few spin options that new England boss Trevor Bayliss will be able to call upon for the Ashes.

The showdown with the Australians starts in just five weeks’ time – but Ali, 27, is confident his bowling will match his batting once he returns to county cricket.

“I’m obviously disappointed not to be playing (in the ODIs) but maybe it is a good thing in the long run to get some more bowling under my belt,” said Ali, who was launching Royal London’s summer of cricket.

It includes the first Royal London One Day International, starting on Tuesday against New Zealand.

“People forget that I’m a batter – a top-order batter,” added Ali.

“I’ve got to get both sides of the game right. I haven’t bowled as well as I’ve liked, but when times are tough I’ll put in exactly the same amount of work as I would do when things are going well.

“The belief is still there and maybe the confidence has been knocked back a little, but I sort of expected at some stage that was going to happen.

“Every time I bowl I feel like I’m learning quite a lot. I just need to get more consistent with my action and, hopefully, I can do what I did last year. I started off quite poorly, but towards the winter I was better.”

With him at Worcestershire will be Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal who, despite recent controversy over his bowling action, is arguably the world’s deadliest spinner across all forms of cricket.

Moeen Ali was speaking at the launch of the Royal London Gilbert Cup, a new grassroots U11 cricket tournament. www.royallondoncricket.com