Monty Panesar may have his sights on winning the Ashes Down Under, but for the time being he is fully focused on achieving success with Sussex.

The former England spin king has been well and truly overthrown by Graeme Swann, whose ten-wicket haul in England’s first Test win over Bangladesh only added to the impression Panesar has a lot of work to do to get back in the side.

Last year Shane Warne accused Monty of not developing as a spinner. And with his first-class stats revealing he picked up only 18 wickets at 59.44 in 13 Championship matches last summer, it’s hard not to agree with the Aussie.

However, after a winter in South Africa playing for the Lions franchise and now with a new county, Monty is confident he can once again get back to taking five-fors and winning matches for his country - but only once he’s proved himself with Sussex.

“At the moment my focus is with Sussex, I am not thinking too much on my England ambitions,” Panesar  said.

“I have cleared my mind and my confidence level is higher than it was six to eight months ago. As a young international cricketer you are going to face these challenges.

“Sometimes you hit a brick wall and you have to learn how to move forward.”

Monty has fallen so far down the England pecking order that when it came to picking two spinners for the England Lions this winter, Adil Rashid and David Wainwright were preferred to him.

However, ask any England fan who they’d like to see bowling in tandem with Swann at the SCG with the Ashes up for grabs this coming winter and it will be a shock if any of them answered Rashid or Wainwright.

And Monty admits he’s excited by the prospect of a successful summer, possibly paving the way for another Ashes campaign Down Under.

“The Ashes is a long way ahead but that’s an aspiration,” he said.

“I’ve been there before, I’ve taken a five-for on my Ashes debut (in Perth). I want to expose myself to the best players on flat wickets where it tests your skill as a spinner. That’s a challenge so I want to be exposed to that and want to test myself against the best.

“And I did enjoy my time when I bowled with Swanny in the West Indies.”

Monty’s the first to admit that spinning his way back into the England set-up may be some way away.

But there’s little doubt a fit and firing Panesar would be a headache the national selectors wouldn’t mind having, especially with Andrew Strauss’ squad currently hosting a load of untried spinning options to partner Swann.

And Monty is sure his stint in South Africa got him on the right track to rediscovering his spinning mojo.

“I’ve been on the circuit for three or four years now so everyone gets to know your game better. I went to South Africa and actually understand more about myself.

“I had more responsibility for my game and was exposed to other things which will help my development,” he said.
“You have always got to evolve as a cricketer and I want the best cricketer I can be.”

‘Short stuff can help me in the long run’

Ever since it was created, Twenty20 has been seen as a batsman’s game with the bowlers mere cannon fodder for the big-hitting stars of the show.

But Monty Panesar claims that cricket’s shortest form can help him spin his side to success in the four and five-day formats.
The Sussex man plays in the Emirates Airline Twenty20 against Surrey, the Cape Cobras and a Fly Emirates side this weekend.

And he hopes bowling a few tight overs at The Sevens will help him when the county season starts next month.

“You have to get more intuitive to the game (T20) and the player you’re bowling at, trying to predict what he’s doing and then you do the opposite,” Panesar said. “That can help going into playing the game in the four-day stuff.

“You begin to predict things better and act on it. And that is a skill in itself and gets you ahead of the game.”

However, he knows that some T20 clashes can be brutal for bowlers like himself.

“The size of the bats these days you kind of hope they don’t middle it and it goes to long on, but if they do middle it, it will probably go into the stands. So it’s about getting the field right and trying to second-guess the batsman. It is a cat-and-mouse game,” he said.