Nine years ago a young cricketer made his Test debut against India at Nagpur. With his verdant facial feathering, matching black patka and comprehensive range of eye-popping expressions, Monty Panesar was England’s mid-noughties breath of fresh air. A left-arm spinner with remarkable spaghetti-span hands and long clickety-clack fingers, on the right day he could turn the ball inside out and make it kick and bounce.

Added to that he had an extraordinarily flexible wrist, able to twist full circle, and a bouncing run-up, left arm releasing the ball high above his head while his right arm floated up to his ears afterwards to add a regal flick of who-knows-what. He seemed England’s long-term spin answer – and for three years, maybe more, he was.

But what followed was a miserable mix of the cricketing and the personal that has left Panesar a forgotten figure without any meaningful cricket. His third county, Essex, are plumped firmly at the bottom of Division Two – but still Panesar doesn’t play.

Amid the Kevin Pietersen miniseries of last year, the fate of Panesar faded into the background – but what should have been his moment after the retirement of Graeme Swann instead became someone else’s, as England turned to the apprentice off-spin of Moeen Ali and Joe Root’s bob-a-jobs.

It was so different in the early days when success – 71 wickets at 28 in his first 19 Tests – and his unusual character turned Panesar into a crowd and media darling. His almost nerdish devotion to the game and his puppyish mid-air appeals delighted spectators and Monty masks sprouted about grounds at a feverish rate.

But while his bowling was lovely on the eye, his batting and fielding verged on the hapless – and he became used to his attempts being accompanied by ironic, though affectionate, applause.

His international career progressed, though he was dogged by accusations that he wasn’t learning. Shane Warne famously said: “Monty Panesar hasn’t played 33 Tests, he has played one Test, 33 times.”

Then, during the first Ashes Test at Cardiff in 2009, six years ago next month, Panesar and Jimmy Anderson batted out the Australians as the July shadows groaned across the ground. At 6.41 that evening, when time was finally called, Panesar was seven not out off 35 balls, getting into line and getting into line again just as his batting buddy Paul Collingwood had shown him.

It was a short-lived personal triumph as, just days later, a miserable Panesar drove out of Lord’s, left out for the second Test and sent back to Northamptonshire. He didn’t pull on an England sweater again until 2012. Eleven Tests followed, with remarkable highs such as Mumbai, where Panesar and Swann bowled England to victory with 19 wickets between them, but to no one’s great surprise he was dropped at the end of the Melbourne Test of the disastrous 2013-14 Ashes tour and has not been picked again.

In the background a slew of personal problems – divorce, alcohol, inappropriate behaviour and total lack of confidence – took their toll. Panesar left Northamptonshire at the end of 2009 to join Sussex, a move that ultimately ended in disaster after he was released immediately following a drunken incident outside a nightclub in 2013. He went to Essex on loan then signed a two-year contract, which comes up at the end of this season.

It is a forlorn tale of someone who loved cricket almost too much. The young boy who was always the first to arrive for practice and the last to go home for Luton Indians somehow became a man who was disciplined by Essex last year over poor timekeeping. The obsessive cricketer who had to be sent away to rest for his own good by Nick Cook at Wantage Road, lost his desire to play. The cult figure became ridiculous – maybe the unintentional clownishness that gave spectators so much pleasure became a burden. Who, truly, likes being laughed at?

Over last winter and into the pre‑season, Panesar was plagued by doubts over whether he even wanted to be a professional cricketer, but Neil Burns, his mentor and coach, feels that he has turned a corner. “I’m really encouraged at the moment. We just need to keep building his confidence and his sense of joy about playing the game.

“At his best he is a really happy figure, creative and with the courage to be different. He is passionate and an evangelist for the art of spin bowling and a 100% trier, which is why he won over British public.”

Burns and Panesar will meet this week to assess the rest of the season. Panesar has been working hard with John Childs and last week Peter Such, now a spin coach at the ECB. At Chelmsford, though, Essex play a straight bat saying only: “Monty is not currently being selected for cricketing reasons.”

Panesar dreams of returning to the very top. According to Burns, he “really wants to play Test cricket again, he’d love to make up for lost time”.

At only 33, time should be on his side. He hasn’t been plagued by the yips, nor is his body crumbling. His fielding and batting may be rudimentary but England need an experienced spinner – a wily old head to fit in a vibrant new team. If only, somehow, he can find the wherewithal to turn things around.