In the first three matches of the ongoing 5-match Ashes series between England and Australia, the English team lost the series 3-0. Now the demand for change in the leadership of the team has intensified. Former English spinner Monty Panesar has said that the team needs a new thinking. He has suggested former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri as a possible successor to Brendon McCullum and Panesar said that Ravi Shastri knows how to win series in Australia.

Demand raised to make Ravi Shastri the coach

England Lost The Ashes 2025-26: Former England spinner Monty Panesar has talked about Ravi Shastri becoming the new head coach of England. He emphasized on Shastri’s proven track record against Australia and said that Shastri has the necessary tactical knowledge to win a high-pressure series in Australia.

Panesar said, ‘You have to think who knows the right way to defeat Australia? How will you take advantage of Australia’s mental, physical and strategic weaknesses? I think Ravi Shastri should become the next head coach of England. McCullum’s ‘baseball’ tactics, which had won praise for his attacking style, have come under intense scrutiny following England’s poor results both at home and away. Since the beginning of the year 2024, the English team has won 12 tests but also lost 13. This has raised concerns over the sustainability of McCullum’s methods and how effective this method is against top teams like Australia.

Ravi Shastri has won two series in Australia

Under the guidance of Ravi Shastri, India has won two test series in Australia. He won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2018-19 and 2020-21. Both times the scoreline of the series was 2-1. This remarkable success in Australia has led some former English players, including Panesar, to view Shastri as a coach who can exploit the weaknesses of the Australian team.

Will McCullum leave the post of head coach?

Meanwhile, amid the ongoing speculation, Brendon McCullum himself has expressed uncertainty about his future as the head coach of England. When asked about continuing his role for the English summer of 2026, McCullum said that the matter is not really in his hands. McCullum told the press, ‘I don’t know. It’s not really up to me, I’ll just keep trying to do my job, try to learn from the things we didn’t do well here and try to make some improvements. These questions are not for me, but for someone else.

Squads for the 2026 T20 World Cup are slowly starting to emerge. Till now India has declared its 15-member squad, while Sri Lanka has declared its preliminary squad, in which changes are still possible. The World Cup will be played from 7 February to 8 March next year. Meanwhile, England’s legendary spin bowler Monty Panesar has predicted the teams going to the last-4 of the T20 World Cup. Along with this, he has also made a big revelation about the next T20 captain of India.

Panesar’s prediction on semi-final teams

Monty Panesar predicted in a media interview, “This time India, Australia, South Africa and England will reach the semi-finals. England beats big teams, this is their strength. I don’t think New Zealand is a stronger team right now. South Africa and India are very strong, Australia and England are also good teams.”

Panesar made another shocking prediction and said that Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav will win the Player of the Series award. Suryakumar who has been struggling with poor form this year. Captain Suryakumar has scored only 218 runs in the last 19 T20 innings at a poor average of 13.62.

If India does not win the T20 World Cup, who will be the captain?

Suryakumar Yadav’s captaincy record in T20 has been excellent. So far, under his captaincy, India has played 38 matches, in which it has won 28 matches and lost only 6 matches. While 2 matches were tied and two matches were drawn.

Panesar said that if India does not become T20 World Champion under the captaincy of Suryakumar Yadav, then Akshar Patel can become the new captain. According to Panesar, Team India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir likes all-rounder players, hence he has predicted that Akshar Patel will be made the captain, who can bowl as well as batting strongly.

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IND vs Eng: Jasprit Bumrah’s workload management became a big issue in the recently ended 5 Test series between India and England. Bumrah played only three matches throughout the tour and India did not win in any of these matches. At the same time, in the two matches in which the team won, Bumrah was not part of the team. In the victory in these matches, Mohammad Siraj performed brilliantly playing the role of the frontline bowler.

India won the matches in which Bumrah was not Bumrah

Bumrah was not included in the team due to workload on the two matches on which India equalized the series. In these matches, Mohammad Siraj led the bowling attack and played an important role in India’s victory with 5-5 wickets. This raised the question whether the team can win even in the absence of Bumrah and whether the strategy of giving them repeated rest is correct.

Former England bowler suggested

Former England spinner of Indian origin, Monty Panesar, now expressed his opinion on the issue, saying that Bumrah should reserve from domestic Test matches and use it completely in foreign tours. In an interview to Hindustan Times, Panesar said, “India can beat any team even without Bumrah in its domestic matches, but on a foreign pitch he is an ex-factor for the team. In such a situation, the captain and coach can say that the team does not need you for any domestic series, but there will be necessary for the team in the foreign test.”

Example of Kohli’s era

This opinion of Panesar is not new to Team India at all. In the early stages of Virat Kohli’s captaincy, Bumrah had made his Test debut abroad and played Tests only on foreign pitches, while he was rested in domestic matches.

Now everyone’s eyes are on whether captain Shubman Gill and Coach Gautam Gambhir adopt this advice or not, India has to play home Test series against West Indies and South Africa in the next two months, In these, the presence or absence of Bumrah will clear the strategy of the team management.,

IND vs Eng Test Series: Former English cricketer and left -arm spinner Monty Panesar has made a big statement before the five -match Test series between India and England starting on 20 June. He has called India a favorite of this series and has predicted that Team India can win this series 2–0. Monty believes that India’s team will deal with England’s ‘Bazball’ strategy better.

Monty Panesar’s prediction

Panesar, 43, said that many players from India have played county cricket, making them a better understanding of the circumstances of England. He said, “India has county cricket players, so they will get benefit in this series. India is currently a favorite for me and the Indian team will probably win this series 2–0.”

Panesar further said, “If the pitch will be green and the swing is more then the England team can benefit, but the Indian team will be heavy on flat pitches.”

Monty’s statement has come when the Indian team reached England and is currently practicing very loudly in Becknham. The first Test of this series will be played in Handingley, Leeds from June 20.

Gautam Gambhir-Shubhaman Gill will take command

This will be the first time that India’s Test team head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Shubman Gill will go on to play Test matches on a foreign tour. Gambhir has recently been made a coach in place of Rahul Dravid, while Gill has been given the captaincy of the Test team after Rohit Sharma’s retirement from Test cricket.

Team India would like to win their records in Test cricket in England by winning this series. At the same time, the England team is preparing to show aggressive games with the help of their ‘Bazball’ strategy.

India’s Test team

Shubman Gill (Captain), Rishabh Pant (Vice-Qetan/Wicketkeeper), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudarshan, Abhimanyu Ishwar, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurlel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jaspreet Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Akashpad Singh, Kuldeep, Kuldeep

England’s Test team

Ben Stokes (Captain), Joe Root, Ollie Pope, Jamie Smith (wicketkeeper), Harry Brook, Jack Crolye, Ben Docket, Jamie Overton, Chris Woakes, Briden Cars, Sam Cook, Josh Tung, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethel

Test match schedule

First test , Handingley, Leads (20-24 June)

Second test , Azbaston, Birmingham

Third test , Lords, London

Fourth Test – The Oval, London

Fifth Test – Old Trafford, Manchester

The entire series of Indian tour will end on 4 August.

When Virat Kohli retired from Test cricket, former captain of Indian cricket team and the most legendary player, this news surprised the fans and cricket world around the world. From cricket fans to former players, they started looking for the reason behind this retirement. Amidst all this, the controversial statement of former England spinner Monty Panesar is also under discussion, in which he has described Kohli’s real reason for retirement from Test cricket.

Panesar believes that Virat’s old weakness is the reason for his retirement

Monty Panesar said, “The balls coming out of the Kohli of Stump seemed to struggle a lot for the last 12 to 18 months. Playing the ball outside in circumstances like Australia and England becomes a bigger challenge. When the ball does more swing and swinging it, it becomes more difficult to play. Has decided to focus in ODIs. “

It is worth noting that during the 2014 tour of England in 2014, Virat Kohli was repeatedly harassed by James Anderson on the balls outside the off stump. However, after that Kohli made a brilliant comeback in the 2018 series, scoring runs in England, but Monty believes that it has become very difficult to repeat the same performance as before, looking at Kohli’s age and his form.

‘Virat has achieved everything, now the turn of new players’

Panesar further said, “Virat also feels that he has now given his best in Test cricket. He has been a great player of this format, due to which the fans started watching Test cricket. Now he feels that it is the right time to make his place for new young players.”

However, former England spinner Monty Panesar himself has not done anything special in his career. Panesar himself has been seen struggling to score runs several times. He has played 50 Test matches for England, but his performance in batting has not been much special nor has he made some special contribution to the team. Fans on social media are criticizing Panesar’s remarks as ‘controversial’ and criticizing him.