Cricket:

WE WILL deal with the obvious comparison straightaway. Despite the similarity in headgear, Monty Panesar, wheeling away tirelessly from one end at Nagpur, does not bring to mind Bishen Bedi, the former India maestro. Instead he is more reminiscent of an England left-arm spinner of true quality, Phil Edmonds - though off the field the impression is that Monty is a tad quieter and less opinionated than the current Middlesex chairman.

It may be that Panesar would prefer a comparison with an English spinner - though he’s probably too young to recall much of Edmonds. He regards himself - without any complications - as an Englishman from Luton, where he was born.

When the ever vigilant Test Match Special producer sought guidance about pronunciation before the match, Monty told him that he preferred the anglicized version of his name - ‘Pan-e-sar’ with a short ‘e’, not ‘Pan-ee-sar’, as he might have been called if playing for India. He is not confused about his loyalties.

Over here they like him; but they are not making too much of a fuss of him because of his family’s Punjabi origins. This country is becoming too worldly to get excited by that. There was more hullabaloo when Nasser Hussain, Chennai-born, came here five years ago. But they do rate Panesar and they should know a thing or two about left-arm spinners.

In the 1970s the great Bedi lulled batsmen with imperceptible changes of flight and line. The ball seemed to hang in the air just out of reach so that the proposed cover drive became a deadly hazard. He invited batsmen to attack him, playfully applauding their lofted shots before enticing them to their doom. Panesar doesn’t do that and is never likely to. Like Edmonds, he has a strong arm; he bowls a heavy ball, which modern technology tells us travels at about 55mph - fast for a spinner (Warne likes to operate at about 49mph). He implants energy on to the ball via strong, pliant fingers and a simple, flawless action. This causes the ball to dip at the end of its flight, the goal of every spinner because it means that the batsman is more likely to misjudge the length of the delivery. This, allied to his pace, means that it is tricky to come down the wicket against him.

Like Edmonds, who craved to bowl the perfect ball every time he ran up - the one that Mohammad Kaif received on Friday night, which pitches on middle and leg and hits off - Panesar does not bother with any fancy, flighty stuff. And he’s quite right to disdain such extravagances for several reasons.

Firstly, at this stage of his career the simpler the process the better. A Test debut is daunting, no place to try to be clever. The answer is to bowl at your natural pace on a length and let someone else worry about what happens after that. Secondly, the better the player the less likely he is to be duped by changes of flight. Indian batsmen of Test quality are schooled to spot these from the cradle. Finally, bowlers - with the possible exception of Glenn McGrath - are not machines so variety comes naturally, unwittingly so why try too hard to contrive it?

So much for the technicalities. What of the temperament? Here Panesar has been a revelation so far. With the bat he was fortunate that expectations had been reduced to an absolute minimum before his maiden Test innings. He batted stoutly and correctly with a technique that would have been the envy of Devon Malcolm or Phil Tufnell and enabled Paul Collingwood to reach his first Test century. He has fielded earnestly with no calamities.

Panesar has only bowled in one innings so far, but it is tempting to draw far-reaching conclusions. In that Utopian world, which we may never revisit, when all England’s best players are available simultaneously, Panesar could still find himself in Australia next winter as Ashley Giles’ spinning partner. He might even give the old boy a few tips.