62 Facts About Monty Panesar

Mudhsuden Singh "Monty" Panesar was born on 25 April 1982 and is a former English international cricketer.

Monty Panesar has played for the Lions in South Africa.

Monty Panesar lost his place in the England Test team, being replaced by Graeme Swann and losing his central contract.

Monty Panesar played in 3 Test matches in India in 2012, before deputising for the injured Graeme Swann as lead spinner in the England tour of New Zealand, where he managed just 5 wickets costing 70 runs each.

In January 2017, Monty Panesar was recruited by Cricket Australia as a spin-bowling consultant for the tour of India, after spending his winter as a club cricketer in Sydney.

Monty Panesar was educated at St Matthew's Infant and Junior Schools and Stopsley High School, Luton.

Monty Panesar has a degree in computer science from Loughborough University.

Monty Panesar has certain physical attributes that help with his spin bowling: he has unusually large hands, measuring 14 inches, and can rotate his hand at his wrist through 360 degrees.

Monty Panesar took his 100th Test wicket on 25 May 2008, against New Zealand, at Old Trafford.

Monty Panesar is not a confident batsman, averaging just under 9 runs per innings in first-class matches, and under 5 runs per innings in Test matches.

In domestic cricket, Monty Panesar made his highest first-class score of 46* against Middlesex on 7 May 2010.

Monty Panesar's fielding has been criticised and at the start of his Test career, this led to loud sardonic cheers from the crowd for completing even the simplest fielding tasks.

However, Monty Panesar was dropped by Sussex in the summer of 2013 in part due to a poor on-field attitude.

Monty Panesar impressed at Sussex in his debut season, taking 52 wickets, including two five-wicket hauls, at an average of 25.69.

Monty Panesar went on to score 163 runs at an average of 10.86 with a career-high score of 46 not out.

Monty Panesar took them at an average of 27.24, which included three five-wicket hauls.

Monty Panesar struggled for Sussex during the 2013 season, and when Sussex announced that his contract would not be renewed at the end of the season, Monty Panesar was loaned out to Essex.

Monty Panesar later signed a 2-year contract with Essex, beginning in the 2014 season.

Monty Panesar was selected in January 2006 for the tour to India, and made his international debut in the first Test against India in Nagpur.

Monty Panesar took three wickets, including India's two best batsmen, Sachin Tendulkar and captain Rahul Dravid.

The former, who Monty Panesar states was his childhood hero and was the spinner's first international Test wicket, later signed the cricket ball that dismissed him and presented it to Monty Panesar.

Monty Panesar went on to play in the second and third Test matches, in Mohali and Mumbai with thirty-five of his family members attending the Test at Mohali, Punjab.

On 11 May 2006 Monty Panesar made his maiden Test appearance in England against Sri Lanka at Lord's.

Monty Panesar played a small role in the first and second Tests, taking only five wickets.

Monty Panesar followed this up with an innings of 26 from 28 balls that included a swept six, adding 37 for the final wicket with Liam Plunkett, although Sri Lanka won the Test by 134 runs.

Monty Panesar took three wickets in the first innings of the Test against Pakistan at Old Trafford, Manchester on 27 June 2006.

Monty Panesar's wicket-taking was overshadowed by Steve Harmison who took a six wicket haul to get Pakistan all out for 119 in the 1st innings.

Monty Panesar was given some credit for responding to criticism from England coach Duncan Fletcher.

Monty Panesar was left out of the England team for the first two Tests of the series, which led to a petition being started by BBC Radio Five Live, calling out for his inclusion.

Monty Panesar was eventually selected to play in the third Test at the WACA in Perth.

Monty Panesar finished the first innings with figures of 5 for 92 off 24 overs, with Justin Langer, Andrew Symonds and Adam Gilchrist among his wickets, becoming the first English spin bowler to take five wickets in a Test match at the WACA in Perth, his other two wickets being Shane Warne and Brett Lee.

Monty Panesar performed respectably with the bat, finishing on 16 not out as part of England's best partnership in the innings.

Monty Panesar remained in the team for the rest of the series, finishing with a record of 10 wickets at an average of 37.90 and collecting a total of 35 runs.

Monty Panesar was the joint third highest wicket taker for England behind Matthew Hoggard and Andrew Flintoff, tying with Steve Harmison, having only played in three out of the five Tests.

Monty Panesar made his ODI debut against Australia at Melbourne on 12 January 2007 and played in nine matches in the series.

Monty Panesar's attacking style, bowling economically and aggressively in equal parts, resulted in him taking nine wickets and conceding 4.60 runs per over.

Monty Panesar struggled to pick up wickets, only taking 7 at an average of 40.42, but bowled fairly economically conceding 4.42 runs per over.

Monty Panesar was in the team for all four Tests against the West Indies in May and June 2007.

Monty Panesar became the first English spin bowler to take ten wickets in a match for ten years, since Phil Tufnell did so in 1997.

Monty Panesar was awarded his first man of the match award for the performance.

Monty Panesar achieved his sixth 5-wicket haul in the final Test match, at Chester-le-Street.

Monty Panesar took the wicket of the otherwise immovable Shivnarine Chanderpaul wicket to end the West Indies second innings.

Monty Panesar finished the series with 23 wickets at an average of 18.69, an achievement which won him the man of the series award.

Monty Panesar was not selected for the following Twenty20 matches, with both sides electing not to include full-time spinners in their sides.

Monty Panesar played fairly well in the first and second Tests but struggled in the third Test.

Monty Panesar took 8 wickets in the series at an average of 50.37.

Monty Panesar played in six of the seven ODI matches performing fairly unspectacularly.

In October 2007, Monty Panesar was dropped for the first four matches of the five match ODI series, the England selectors opting to pick Graeme Swann.

However, Monty Panesar was given a vote of confidence from the England Coach, Peter Moores, who called him " number one Test spinner".

Monty Panesar finished the series with 8 wickets at an average of 50.63.

Monty Panesar ended the series with 9 wickets at an average of 27.22.

In view of his lack of penetration, Monty Panesar was dropped for the remainder of the series, not appearing again in the Test team until 25 January 2012.

Monty Panesar was selected ahead of legspinner Adil Rashid and offspinner James Tredwell.

Monty Panesar did not play in any of the Tests but played in two of the tour matches against Australia A and Victoria, taking 6 wickets.

Monty Panesar was picked for the second Test starting on 25 January 2012 in Abu Dhabi, this was his first match in over two and a half years.

Monty Panesar was picked to play in the first Test but performed averagely only taking 2 wickets in the match, and dropping Mahela Jayawardene twice in twenty minutes.

Monty Panesar did however score a quick-fire 13 off 11 balls hitting two boundaries in the first innings.

Monty Panesar was not selected to play in the final Test of the series, which England won by 8 wickets.

Monty Panesar was the leading spinner of the Test part of the tour as Graeme Swann had to pull out requiring surgery on an recurring elbow injury.

Monty Panesar has uncut hair and a full-length beard, which is a fundamental part of the Sikh identity and way of life.

Monty Panesar won the 2006 Beard of the Year competition run by the Beard Liberation Front.

Monty Panesar was married to Gursharan Rattan which ended in divorce.