Monty Panesar Bio - Biography

Name Monty Panesar
Height 6 ft 1 in
Naionality English
Date of Birth 25-April-1982
Place of Birth Luton, Bedfordshire, England
Famous for Cricketer
Monty Panesar is an English international cricketer who currently plays for Sussex. A left-arm spinner, Panesar made his Test debut in 2006 and one-day debut for England in 2007. In English county cricket he played for Northamptonshire until 2009. He has also played for Lions in South Africa.

Born in Luton to Indian Ramgharia Sikh parents, he is the first Sikh to represent a nation other than India in Test cricket. He wears a black patka (a smaller version of the full Sikh turban) while playing and training. He is a crowd favourite in England, and many fans have worn patkas and fake beards while watching him play. Panesar has certain physical attributes that help with his spin bowling. Firstly he has unusually large hands, measuring 14 inches (360 mm), and can also rotate his hand at his wrist through 360 degrees. Panesar demonstrated his ability to take Test wickets in his first match in Nagpur, India, where his first Test wicket was that of the highly respected Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar. He also bowled batsmen Rahul Dravid and Mohammad Kaif. In the 2006 Test Series against Sri Lanka, Panesar claimed his first five-wicket haul for 78 runs, in the third Test at Trent Bridge. Panesar went on to take 5 for 92 and 3 for 145 in the 3rd Test match in Australia, in December 2006, despite England losing the match. Panesar is not a confident batsman, averaging just under 9 runs per innings. However, he has had significant batting performances: he scored a quick-fire 26 against Sri Lanka including a six off Murali in 2006, and in the Ashes First Test in 2009, he and James Anderson stayed in for 40 minutes, jointly surviving 69 balls to secure an important draw.

In domestic cricket, Panesar made his highest first class score of 46* against Middlesex on 7 May 2010. Since then he has shown signs of improvement especially in the 2011 season where he hit Ian Blackwell for three sixes proving that he can be quite a big hitter of the ball. On 11 May 2006 Panesar made his maiden Test appearance in England against Sri Lanka at Lord's. He played a small role in the first and second Tests, taking only five wickets. He was to fare better in the third by claiming his first five wicket haul with bowling figures of 5/78. He followed this up with an explosive innings of 26 from 28 balls that included a swept six, adding 37 for the final wicket with Liam Plunkett. This was not enough to affect the result as Sri Lanka won the Test by 134 runs.

Panesar took three wickets in the first innings of the Test against Pakistan at Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, on 27 June 2006. His wicket-taking was overshadowed by Steve Harmison who took a six wicket haul to get Pakistan all out for 119 in the 1st innings. However, Panesar took 5-72 in the second innings, and Harmison 5-57. The pair took 19 of the 20 Pakistani wickets in the match (the other being a run out) in an innings-and-120-run victory. This was the first time two bowlers had taken all bowling wickets since Jim Laker's record match figures of 19 for 90 again at Old Trafford. In the second innings Panesar took the wickets of five of the six specialist batsmen, including Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf.

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