“Having Monty come up is a nice way to kickstart the squad’s thinking about playing in India”

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

Monty Panesar has been hired by Cricket Australia to work with the national team’s spinners ahead of their tour of India next month.

Panesar, who has been playing club cricket in Sydney, knows what it takes to be successful in India as he took 17 wickets in the span of three Tests to help England secure a 2-1 win in December 2012.

Australia will need all the help they can get as during their last tour of India in 2013, they were whitewashed 4-0. Furthermore, in their most recent visit to the subcontinent in July last year, they were whitewashed 3-0 by Sri Lanka.

“Having Monty come up is a nice way to kickstart the squad’s thinking about playing in India,” Pat Howard, Cricket Australia’s high performance manager, told the 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 Jaques will run the sessions with Matt, Monty and SOK, Phil has some nice ideas about how to challenge the batsmen. 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.”

Meanwhile, Panesar, who has not played international cricket since December 2013, has expressed his desire to don the England jersey once again.

“I still want to play for England, I still have that desire,” the 34-year-old, who played for Northamptonshire last summer, told BBC Radio 5 Live.