Monty Panesar's left arm spin gives the England attack a dimension that the Windies' sorely lack.
The Windies ineptitude with the ball in the first seven days of Test cricket on the England tour has only highlighted the need for a specialist spinner in the Windies side. In the first Test at Lord's the Windies pace quartet of Daren Powell, Jerome Taylor, Dwayne Bravo and Corey Collymore each went for over a hundred runs as England piled up a massive 553/5 declared in overcast conditions that should have favoured the seamers. Four England batsmen: Alastair Cook, Paul Collingwood, Ian Bell and debutant Matt Prior picked off centuries against the largely wayward and rusty Windies pace attack - with 'attack' being used very generously.
Contrast that with the success of Monty Panesar against the Windies, who took six wickets in their first innings and of Chris Gayle, who took 3 English wickets in the second innings, wouldn't a specialist spinner have been useful for the West Indies?
In this current Headingley Test, the Windies chased leather for more than four sessions as England piled on the runs again - this time 570/7, with Pietersen scoring a double and Michael Vaughan a ton. Surely a front line spinner couldn't have done any worse than the four pacers? Surely a spinner would have given the batsmen a little more to think about, while eating up overs and giving the pacers some time to rest? Dave Mohammed may never be a top class leg spinner, in fact I think he bowls to flat to really be a top notch test leg spinner, but surely he couldn't have done any worse than some of the pace bowling we've seen? Surely? Or even Amit Jaggernauth of Trinidad? A spinner may even struggle at first but top notch Test spinners are not born that way, they hone their craft after much practice. Even the great Shane Warne had returns of 1/150 in his debut Test. So for team administration to wait for a world class spinner to appear on the scene before they select one is an ignorant strategy. They should carefully nurture spinners who show promise and give them every opportunity to develop their skill. Surely a place could have been found in the 15 man squad for England for Mohammed or Jaggernauth, if only to continue their development, rather than take five specialist fast bowlers and two fast bowling allrounders.
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