Monty Panesar takes pride in Australia's Pune victory

Mumbai: Former England spinner Monty Panesar is on cloud nine. The 34-year-old left-arm spinner was a consultant for two Australians — Matt Renshaw and Steve O’Keefe — and Panesar has every reason to be happy for his wards’ performance on India tour.

Panesar, who is playing grade cricket in Sydney, said, “I feel both of them have done really well, they showed good temperament and skill to adapt on Indian pitches.” Panesar’s consultancy stint was only for two days.

“I would like to get involved for more than 2 days since I feel coaching is about getting to know the players and giving your time to understand them as people. Had the consultancy been a little longer, it would have been more of a benefit and they did consider but they already had Sriram in place. I was grateful for the opportunity,” he said.

On the topic of spin friendly pitches, Monty said, "India should produce flat pitches against good opposition and back their spinners (R Ashwin and R Jadeja) to do a better job than opposition spinners. But if you produce turning pitch then it gives the opposition team the chance to get in the game and potentially win, I feel India spinners bowl better on flat pitches than the opposition.”