Australia hire Sridharan, Panesar for India tour

CRICKET AUSTRALIA has recruited England spinner Monty Panesar as its spin-bowling consultant, ramping up its preparations for the team’s tour of India starting next month.

The 34-year-old Panesar, who spent this summer as a club cricketer in Sydney, was chosen owing to his impressive record during England’s memorable series win in India in 2012-13 when he snared 17 wickets in three Tests. The Australians have also hired former India spinner Sriram Sridharan as spin consultant. Sridharan, who played eight ODIS for India between March2000 to December 2004, had assisted the Australian team on the Sri Lanka tour as well as the World Twenty20 in India last year.

According to media reports in Australia, Panesar will travel to the Centre of Excellence this week to work with left-arm spinner Steve O’keefe, as well as Matt Renshaw, the opening batsman who was cleared of concussion on Sunday, following the incident that led to his withdrawal from action during the third Test against Pakistan.

Panesar’s recruitment came at the behest of Pat Howard, Cricket Australia’s high performance manager, keeping in mind the threat posed by the Indian spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who took 54 wickets between them in the last series against England.

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