Monty Panesar

Hailed as England’s most exciting spinner, Monty Panesar is a former English cricketer of Indian descent.  Panesar had a short and simple run-up coupled with a quick action and a dangerous arm ball. 

Panesar was originally started out as a medium-pace bowler during his initial years before watching over to spin at the age of 16. He represented the England U-19s in 2001 which was led by Ian Bell. Progressing through the ranks of Northamptonshire's youth teams, Monty had a blistering start to his first-class career finishing with match figures of 8/131 against Leicestershire on debut in 2001. 

By 2005, Panesar would regularly grab the headlines for his performances for his county side Leicestershire. Panesar made his way into the team for the India tour in 2006 and eventually, made his international debut on March 1st at Nagpur. Panesar’s first Test wicket was of little master Sachin Tendulkar and he impressed one and all with his guile and pace variations. 

Consistent performances meant that he sealed his place as a first-choice spinner in the English side. Panesar toured Australia to play in the 2006–07 Ashes series. However, Panesar failed to find a place in the playing XI for the first two Tests of the series, which led to a petition being started by Crickxo Radio Five Live, calling out for his inclusion. Panesar, eventually, played his first Test on Australian soil after he was selected to play in the third Test and stunned everyone with his incredible bowling show, and finished the first innings with figures of 5 for 92.

Panesar made his ODI debut in the Commonwealth Bank series following the Ashes. He debuted in the 1st match of the series on January 12th, 2007. In 2012, he played a crucial role in helping England achieve their first series win since 1984/85 against India on their home soil after finishing with 17 wickets in the series. 

England's shambolic return Ashes in December 2013 when they were whitewashed 5-0 was the last of Panesar’s international career. He played his final first-class match in July 2016 for the Northants which was the last of his competitive cricketing career.

(As of May 2021)