Sam Billings should be an automatic selection in the Top 6 for England: Monty Panesar

Former left-arm spinner Monty Panesar feels that right-handed batsman Sam Billings should be a regular feature in England’s ODI squad owing to his wonderful performance in the limited-overs game. Panesar expects Sam to be there in the top six selection of the team after his explosive performance against Ireland.

Having made his international debut in 2015, Billings has till now represented England in 18 One Day Internationals and 26 T20Is scoring 403 and 348 runs respectively at an average of 31 and 17.4. The 29-year-old was drafted in England’s squad for three-match ODI series against Ireland after Joe Denly was out due to a back injury.

Capitalizing the opportunity provided to him, Billings scored unbeaten 67 and 46 in the first two ODIs. However, the batsman failed to make a mark in the third ODI as he could score only 19 runs in 18 balls.

Speaking on Sportstiger’s show ‘Cricket Talks with Monty Panesar’, Monty showered praises on the budding England batsman. “Whenever Billings is playing in on the crease in an ODI he looks very comfortable. It surprises me that why isn’t he in the line-up,” Panesar said.

“He should be an automatic selection in the top six for the team. Now, with these performances, I would expect him to be there for sure,” he added.

Ireland will learn a lot about their cricket: Monty Panesar

Ireland had toured England for a three-match ODI series with the matches scheduled on July 30, August 1 and August 4 at Southampton. While the hosts won the first two ODIs with 6 and 4 wickets respectively, Ireland outshined the English players in the third and final ODI by 7 wickets.

Talking about the series, Panesar said that Ireland will learn a lot about their game and players while playing against big nations like England. Also, they can devise a plan to overcome their shortcomings and improve their game.

“Ireland will learn a lot about their cricket, where it stands at the moment and where it needs to go. One area of concern is that they keep getting out to left-arm seam bowling of David Willey and Reece Topley,” said the 38-year-old.

“So, they have not really worked out a game-plan. Irish cricket will always come up with some sort of struggles against the bigger nations. So, they will have to work out a game plan for that and also how quick learners are they.” he added.