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Judhajit
25-Feb-2013
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After England's defeat, the spotlight has been trained on Monty Panesar, but before he is condemned to the gallows in the rush to promote Adil Rashid, it might be instructive to compare him with India's spinners. Mike Atherton in the Times believes, in comparison to Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra, the difference however, is not so marked.
Although Panesar failed abjectly to do his bit on the final day, bowling 27 wicketless overs, comparing match figures does not show him in the poor light one may imagine. Amit Mishra, the leg spinner, bowled 51 overs, taking four for 165; Harbhajan bowled 68 overs, taking four for 187; Panesar bowled 46 overs, taking three for 170.
Duncan Fletcher in his blog on the Guardian website remembers the hardest loss he had to take during his time as England coach, in Adelaide. This defeat in Chennai was on a par, but in Australia England threw it away on the last morning with the bat. This time, England had more than enough runs to play with. He also expresses concern about the failure of England's three experienced batsmen — Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff.
The same goes for Panesar. As I've said before, it's crucial a bowler understands what batting's about and that's where Monty keeps coming unstuck. Above and beyond understanding the technical aspects of variations — changes of angle and delivery — Monty has to come to terms with the way a batsman's mind works, and second-guess his intentions. But he's just sending down the same ball again and again.
It was the sheer fanaticism for cricket that made Tunku Varadarajan pass the Tebbit Test that decreed that immigrant Britons must not cheer for the land of their forefathers when teams from said lands were playing teams from Britain. In his column in the Times, he explains why he shouted for England in Chennai, after having cheered for India ever since moving to England as a 16-year-old.
S Dinakar in the Hindu says it was an ordinary Test for Pietersen as captain. Tactically, he was found wanting as England neither attacked, nor did they strangulate.