Australia Appoint Monty Panesar As Spin Consultant For India Tour
Jan 30, 2019 at 12:56 PM
Former England spinner Monty Panesar has been roped in by Australia as a spin-bowling consultant for their upcoming four-match Test series in India.
The left-arm spinner, who had played a vital role in England’s historic series triumph in India in 2012-13 by taking 17 wickets in three matches, will soon start working with Steve O’Keefe and Matt Renshaw at Cricket Australia’s Centre of Excellence in Brisbane.
Expressing his delight over having the spinner in the backroom staff during the tough tour, CA high performance manager Pat Howard said the 34-year-old can help the Australian batsmen to get a feel of what to expect on the turning pitches of sub-continent.
“Having Monty come up is a nice way to kickstart the squad’s thinking about playing in India,” Howard told local daily Australian. “We want the batsmen to be thinking about what the bowlers will be trying to do to them over there and Monty can engage them that way as well as with the bowlers.
“Phil JaCques (Queensland coach) will run the sessions with Matt, Monty and SOK, Phil has some nice ideas about how to challenge the batsmen,” Howard added. “In Australia we love big turners, but the successful bowlers like [Rangana] Herath and [Ravi] Ashwin are more likely to get you lbw or bowled than any other way, their accuracy and their length is absolutely outstanding.”
Panesar also hopes to chip in with valuable tips to help the Australian batsmen do well in India. The team from Down Under has experienced a horrid time in sub-continent in recent years and will have to play out of their skin to get a good result in the upcoming series.
“Obviously there has been a question mark over Australian batsmen in away series,” Panesar said.
“So I hope to be able to give them a hand with that stuff and obviously help with the spin bowlers as well,” he added.
Steve O’ Keefe also expressed his excitement over working with the left-arm spinner, who has picked up 36 wickets in 11 matches in India.
“I don’t know if I’ll be getting too much batting advice from Monty,” O’Keefe joked on Big Sports Breakfast radio. “He played in a successful campaign when England won a couple of series ago.
“I’ll definitely be picking his brain (at the NCC). It’s a good opportunity to head up to Brisbane again. They’ve got some spinning wickets and Monty has got an outstanding Test record and a really good one in India,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Australian team has also appointed former India spinner Sridharan Sriram as a consultant for the series that begins on 23rd of next month.