Australia have ramped up preparations for India with two key consultancy appointments, including former England spinner Monty Panesar.



Panesar will soon begin work with Stephen O’Keefe and Matt Renshaw at Cricket Australia’s Centre of Excellence in Brisbane in the lead-up to the four-Test series starting in February.



Retired Indian spinner Sriram Sridharan has also been employed as a consultant and will accompany the team to Dubai for a training camp and then to India.



The left-arm orthodox spinner, who played eight ODIs for India between 2000 and 2004, has previously worked with CA in an advisory role, including at last year’s World T20 and the ill-fated tour of Sri Lanka.



“Sri has worked with us on a number of occasions now all across our pathway system and he is currently in Dubai with our under-16 team providing his expertise on sub-continental conditions,” CA high performance manager Pat Howard said.



“He knows our players very well and has a wealth of knowledge on the conditions that our players will face in India.”



The appointment is an intriguing one, given Sridharan’s left-arm orthodox is more suited to O’Keefe and Ashton Agar, rather than right-armer Nathan Lyon. Sridharan has also previously worked with the pair of left-armers on the 2015 Australia A tour of India.

Lyon’s chief consultant John Davison has commitments with Queensland Cricket at the same time as the tour.



Panesar, also a left-arm bowler, took 17 wickets at 26.82 when England won in India in 2012 – the last time India were beaten on home soil. The 34-year-old has spent time in Sydney this summer with grade club Campbelltown-Camden.

O’Keefe said he would work closely with Panesar, with the Englishman one of his nine scalps for Manly in Sydney first grade on Saturday.



“I’ll definitely be picking his brains,” O’Keefe told Sky Sports Radio. “It’s a good opportunity again to head up to Brisbane on the spinning wickets and Monty, he’s got an outstanding Test record and a really good one in India.”

Panesar will also work with Australian opening batsman Renshaw in how to deal with star Indian spinners Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. The pair took 54 wickets between them as the world No1 side hammered England in their recent five-Test series victory.

Australia has not won a Test in India since 2004 and their last series victory in Asia came against Sri Lanka in 2011. They have since suffered nine straight Test losses on the sub-continent.