Former English fast bowler, Monty Panesar, who played a crucial role in England’s series win in India in 2012, feels England needs to include the veteran all-rounder, Moeen Ali alongside left-arm spinner Jack Leach in the first Test scheduled to be commencing on Chennai on Friday. Leach and off-spinner Dom Bess, both of whom have never played a Test in India, featured in England’s 2-0 series sweep in Sri Lanka. 

During a chat with PTI from the UK, Monty Panesar said, “Jack Leach is likely to play since India has a lot of right handers and I will pick Moeen Ali over Dom Bess as the off-spinner in the eleven as he has done well in India and has the required experience. He can also bat. Having not played in Sri Lanka, Ali is fresh and hungry. India would not like facing Ali, they would be happy facing Leach and Bess.”

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Ali took a match-winning six-wicket haul against India, his second best Test figures, coming in the home series of 2014. However, he has often been excluded from the Test playing XI with his last appearance coming during the Ashes almost 18 months ago. However, Monty believes that the English spinners need to flight the ball and avoid bowling flatter lines.

Describing the same, Panesar said, “They should be aiming to bowl good length but how it is getting there also matters. Bowling too flat will make things easy for the batter, so I would flight the ball. You can bowl arm balls and cross seamers to mix things up but not too frequently especially when the ball is soft.”

Panesar also stressed managing the field accoridng to the batsman, something that was key in his success in 2012.

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Elaborating the same, Monty Panesar said, “Joe Root should tempt the Indian batsmen to step out and go for big hits. You have men in the deep and have close in fielders at the same time. The more the Indian batters try to accelerate, the bat acceleration will increase, and the probability of getting the edge increases. Our spinners are used to bowing with the much harder dukes balls so lets see how they fare with the SG Test.”