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Monty Panesar

Bob Bamber

U19 12th Man
What do you guys reckon about him. He is a great spinner (The best in england at the moment) but he can't really bat and his fielding leaves alot to be desired at the best of times.
 
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Pothas

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I have been really impressed by him on the two occasions i have seen him in the last couple of weeks. Only saw him briefly on sunday but his accuracy is superb. The crowd really arent helping his fielding, the constant cheering has made his fielding worse in the two test matches. Clearly it needs a lot of work but long term id definetly stick with him. His fielding was no worse than that from some of the Sri Lankans on sunday which was appauling.
 

sledger

Spanish_Vicente
hes shown that hes not a one trick pony, or a flash in the pan, high hopes for monty now...but will he sustain it? and what of ashley giles?
 

adharcric

International Coach
Monty Panesar was promising on the tour to India. His accuracy is impressive but he needs to make sure he pitches them up all the time. Right now, he can be a good spinner because he can turn the ball and has control over his bowling. To become a great spinner, he needs to develop more variety and guile.
 

Sanz

Hall of Fame Member
The fact that people talk about his batting speaks volume of England's dependence on its tailenders. As long as he continues to bowl well and improves his fielding, IMO that should be okay, I dont care if he breaks the world's worst batter record.
 

adharcric

International Coach
Sanz said:
The fact that people talk about his batting speaks volume of England's dependence on its tailenders. As long as he continues to bowl well and improves his fielding, IMO that should be okay, I dont care if he breaks the world's worst batter record.
They're just jealous in England because they don't have Arjun's supreme six-hitting all-rounder Munaf Patel at #11. ;)
 

cpr

International Coach
What i find interesting about Monty isnt his bowling, but his fielding.

Now i'm guessing that he's always been a promising bowler, certainly not just picked it up over night. Batting and bowling are interchangable, you can be rubbish at one if your skill at the other balances it out, so theres no worries about his batting at the moment...

Fielding is something thats affected much more by training. You can be a useless fielder, but practise hard to improve (not saying you'd become Jonty Rhodes, there is some natural skill involved). This has been pointed out a fair bit in the test commentary, with references to how Tufnell improved his over time.

So where has this training been all through his development?? If it was clear that he'd make the grade as a bowler (even if it was just a first class one, let alone a test bowler), then any respectable team coach should have picked up on his fielding weaknesses and tried to improve them, for him and the team.... I cant believe his fielding hasnt cost any other team he's played for bar England.

One thing that struck me during the last test was at times he failed to show even the most basic techniques in the field (i wasnt paying much attention, so for it to be noticed by me means it couldnt have been a fluke). I was always taught that if you cant grab a ball cleanly, get your lower leg flat on the ground behind your hands to act as a barrier to stop misfields going off to the boundary. I saw Monty go two handed to grab a slowish ball, with his feet apart in a standing position, and watch the ball go past him.....

Mebbie he never listened at fielding practise, mebbie he wasnt given the practise in the first place, either way, someone somewhere should have taken him aside and made him fix the basics in his fielding LONG before he got to the test team.

Hopefully someone will belatedly do this now, and he can become a damn good spinner for England.
 

vic_orthdox

Global Moderator
I was suprised how much he seemed to hurry the batsmen. It doesn't look like he gets much dip, and the only worrying thing about when I saw him bowl was how many opportunities he gave Dilshan to cut him.
 

marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
Sanz said:
The fact that people talk about his batting speaks volume of England's dependence on its tailenders.
No, I think it speaks volumes about the need for a side to have capable batsmen down to 11.

With the current missing bowlers we're not only missing their superior bowling, but also their much more solid batting.

Giles >>> Plunkett
Harmison >>> Mahmood
Jones >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Panesar.

The side wouldn't have lost 5 for 5 with those 3 in the 8, 10, 11 (or 9, 10, 11 as it would've been with the Hoggster NWMing) positions.
 

Mister Wright

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I haven't seen that much of Panesar at test level, but what I have seen has been very impressive. Surely Giles shouldn't have a stranglehold on the lone spinners role in the side, especially with a tour to Aus in the near future. Can't to worse than Giles, so Panesar should be kept with.
 

dontcloseyoureyes

BARNES OUT
From what I've seen, the argument with Panesar vs. Giles is pretty much this:

Panesar is probably a better bowler.
Giles is a better batsman.
Giles is a great gully fieldsman, while if you could, you'd rather have a doormat at mid-on than Panesar.

But anyway, with the English lower order/tail as it would be at full strength, they can all wield the willow well enough to cover Panesar, in my opinion. The fielding thing can be worked on, and if he has the ethic [which he seems to have] he could definately get it up to test level.
 

Goughy

Hall of Fame Member
My thoughts from a previous thread.

Goughy said:
I am getting a little annoyed with all this Panesar stuff at the moment.

Panesar is a decent bowler but guys on TV and in the press are going overboard about his bowling and action.

There is all this 'lets be nice to him because he tries hard' attitude with the commentators. There is pseudo-intelligent cricket analysis stating that he has such a wonderful and classic action. Its ********. I agree its pretty but it is far from perfect.

His arm and body action is fine but his head is in a horrible position at the time of delivery. His head is tilted back and his eyes are closer to vertical than horizontal.

It will be very difficult to achieve consistency if his eyes are so uneven and find it hard to visualize and hit a spot.

I have never seen a left arm orthodox bowler be cut so often. He drops it short far too often. If he could straighten his head then he will certainly pitch the ball up with more consistency and increase pressure on batsmen.

I’m not saying he is a bad bowler at all but it seems most analysis seems to overemphasis what he does well in order to offset his obvious weaknesses.
Bob Bamber said:
What do you guys reckon about him. He is a great spinner
Did you forget to take your medicine today? Can I call a nurse to help with your dellusions? That statement may just qualify as an abuse of the work great.

Bob Bamber said:
(The best in england at the moment)
No Doubt and he deserves his spot for the time being.
 

Top_Cat

Request Your Custom Title Now!
I'm with Giles.......... errr, Jack.

Potentially a good bowler but doesn't get a lot of of dip. I don't think he turns it much more than Giles, either. Occasionally he really rips one but generally he's only a fair turner of the ball. Not in the Vettori league, anyway.
 

Pedro Delgado

International Debutant
Not as good as Giles variation-wise, probably tweaks it a little more though. I like watching him bowl, and am not looking for perfection like Goughy, merely aesthetically pleasing, which he is. Needs an arm ball. Fielding is shocking and must be improved, not worried about his rabbit tendencies. Purely as a bowler, a natural replacement for KoS when he retires, obviously runs and gully fielding will have to provided elsewhere.

The best option we have right now.
 

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