Ponting plots strategy against Panesar

Ricky Ponting has identified Monty Panesar, England's left-arm spinner, as the bowler to watch out for in the Ashes series. Panesar, who was first recognised by Ponting during a warm-up match against Northamptonshire during Australia's 2005 tour of England, has been a revelation during his short stint in the England Test side, deceiving top batsmen such as Sachin Tendulkar and Younis Khan with clever variations.

"He's got this cult figure behind him, but more importantly for them, he's actually doing the job for them on the field," Ponting said in The Sun-Herald. "A lot of the Englishmen over the years have been a bit guilty of just firing the ball in a bit too fast, and you can see with him he uses the air a lot more. He's got good, subtle changes of pace and a really good arm ball as well. You could see from that that one day he might have the chance to play for England."

Ponting said Panesar was a more attacking bowling than Ashley Giles and a greater wicket-taking option for England. "Giles did what the team required of him, but it looks like this guy can actually do both - keep it reasonably tight if needed and when it starts to turn a bit more, he can bowl some pretty handy deliveries as well," he said.

However, Ponting also pointed out that Panesar would need to work hard at his fielding and batting. Panesar's batting has improved in the last few months, but with his one-dimensional play he failed to earn a place in the extended England squad for the Champions Trophy in India.

"His fielding and batting might need a little bit of work," Ponting said, "and I'm sure the Australian crowds will let him know about that when they're out here, but he looks like a pretty good player. I watched him under a high ball in India and he actually turned his back and ran away."

Ponting revealed that the Australian openers, Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer, would adopt an aggressive approach to negate Panesar. "The left-handers especially, Justin and Matty, the way they generally play spin is to be fairly aggressive," Ponting said. "We'll try to make some sort of impact on him early on - hopefully a positive one - and we don't let him get on top of us."