Australia hire Sridharan, Panesar as spin consultants for India tour

Cricket Australia has recruited England spinner Monty Panesar and former India all-rounder Sriram Sridharan as its spin-bowling consultants, ramping up its preparations for the team's tour of India starting next month

Monty Panesar

Melbourne: 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.

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. 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," Howard was quoted as saying by the Australian.

Australia have not won a Test in India since 2004 and their last series victory in Asia came against Sri Lanka in
2011. They have since suffered nine straight Test losses on the sub-continent.

Former India all-rounder Sriram Sridharan on Tuesday rejoined the Australian cricket team as a spin consultant for their upcoming four-Test tour in the subcontinent.

Sridharan's appointment as a part of the support staff comes a day after Cricket Australia (CA) appointed former English left-arm spinner Monty Panesar for the same role.

Sridharan, who worked with the national side on their tour of Sri Lanka last year as well as the World T20 in India, will travel to Dubai with some of the Australia players on January 29 to train at the International Cricket Council Academy.

Speaking on the appointment, CA's Executive General Manager Team Performance, Pat Howard, said it was good to have consistency in the spin consultant role.

"Sridharan has worked with us on a number of occasions now all across our pathway system and he is currently in Dubai with our Under-16 team providing his expertise on sub-continental conditions," Howard said in a statement.

"He knows our players very well and has a wealth of knowledge on the conditions that our players will face in India."

Sridharan, who played eight One-day Internationals (ODI) for India, said he was excited at the prospect of working with the Australian team again.

"As always, I consider it a great honour to be given the opportunity to work with the Australian Men's Team once again. I really look forward to adding value and contributing to a winning cause, against a quality opposition."

"India is regarded as one of the toughest places to tour as a Test playing nation and I am looking forward to the challenge," he added.

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