Moeen Ali believes he is reaping the benefits already from the presence of Saeed Ajmal at Worcestershire after retaining his place in the England squad for the ODI with Scotland at Aberdeen on May 9.
Moeen has made a fine start to the season with the bat and helped Worcestershire emerge as early pace-makers in Division Two of the LV = County Championship.
But he is also picking up tips about the art of bowling from Pakistan spin star Ajmal as he looks to develop further his own bowling skills.
He said: "It is great to tap into Saeed's knowledge. It is something I was really looking forward to when I knew he was coming back to Worcestershire.
"He has given me a few tips already and the ball is already coming out nicely.
"Saeed has done it at the top level and what I'm going through at the moment practicing bowling, he has been through already so that gives me a confidence boost."
Moeen was part of England's squad for the winter series in the West Indies and the ICC World Twenty20 tournament in Bangladesh.
He played in three ODI's and two Twenty20 games in the Windies, two warm-up games against West Indies and India in Bangladesh and all four of England's matches in the ICC competition against New Zealand, Sri Lanka, South Africa and the Netherlands.
His highest score was 55 in the third ODI in Antigua and he made several useful contributions with the ball, often bowling the first over in T20 matches.
Now Mooen has retained his place under new England head coach and former Worcestershire player Peter Moores.
The match against Scotland precedes a T20 international and a five match ODI series against Sri Lanka from May 20 to June 3.
Moeen, the leading run scorer in the country last season, has made a good start to the new campaign.
Scores of 69, 41, 0 and 99 have given him a total of 209 runs from four innings at a healthy average of 52.25 and his three first innings wickets helped the county to victory over Kent in their opening home game of the season.
