Stick To Cricket: Monty Panesar apologises to Steve Smith, delivers Bashir warning and backs England's next lead spinner...

 Betfair and The Overlap proudly present "Stick to Cricket," a captivating show featuring renowned England cricket legends Michael Vaughan, Sir Alastair Cook, David 'Bumble' Lloyd, and Phil 'Tuffers' Tufnell. 

The weekly show offers insights and discussions, with special guests joining the cricket icons to delve into the sport's hottest topics. 

This week the panel welcome ex-England spinner Monty Panesar to discuss his cricketing career for England and his exchange of words with Australia captain Steve Smith during the latest Ashes series...

Monty Panesar: If I saw Steve Smith I would apologise to him

I remember talking about Steve Smith on my YouTube channel. My producer at the time said, 'Let's watch the press conference.' When I watched the press conference where he was obviously admitting to what happened and he was crying.

I looked around and thought, 'I feel a bit guilty.' I didn't know why I went so hard at him in Australia. But it's just a build-up of the Ashes, so you get sucked into the hype.

I didn't play with him, but I got him out in Adelaide, I remember that.

Now looking back at when we did that segment, I think if I see him, I'll say, 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that kind of stuff.' I don't think he wants to see me. I haven't got his number.

In the first innings, he played and missed 50 percent of the time. I think the situation did affect him going into the game. Normally in Australia, his play and misses are only 10 percent. But you're right, after that, it was all dead and buried.

Watch the full Stick To Cricket show with Monty Panesar here

Panesar: Shoaib Bashir needs a season of county cricket to get to know his game

If in Australia and in England, we're not using spin as a major first-innings weapon to take wickets, then the art of spin is going to gradually die out. Like the dodo, it'll get extinct. We won't see specialist spinners. 

I think with Bashir, he needs a whole season of county cricket where he just takes 40 to 50 wickets, gets to know his game better, and doesn't maybe rely on Ben Stokes giving him these extravagant fields to get wickets. I just think that he needs a proper season of county cricket.

Between the ages of 25 and 27, you get to know your game quite well. I made my debut at 23, but back then I bowled a lot of overs. I remember bowling 60 overs in a Minor County game. I just don't think spinners at the moment bowl enough overs.

They need to have a repeatable action. They've got to bowl lots of overs, and captains and coaches need to play spinners a lot more early in the season and get those overs under their belts.

They need to see it as controlling one end, going at 2.5 or 3 an over, and trying to get those maidens in. Then later on in the second half of the season is where they get their wickets. I think that's slightly gone out of the game at the moment, and that's why we don't have enough specialist spinners coming through. 

Panesar: Mason Crane should be the spin option for England

It's interesting because you may want to go for a finger spinner. Maybe Callum Parkinson could be an option because he's bowling good overs and he's going at a low economy. Let's see if he can pick up a few more wickets in the next couple of games. 

I think Mason Crane could be the option at the moment though. I think he got a hundred in one of the games, he's picked up ten wickets, and he's bowling really well. We don't know what he's like in England. We know what Jack Leach is like. I think Crane could be a good option. If Bashir is not bowling so well, I think maybe Mason Crane is worth a go. 

Panesar: Collingwood my 'batting buddy' in Test saving innings

What Andy Flower said at the time was we needed the tail to bat longer. So, he said, 'You need to find your batting buddy.'

Mine was Paul Collingwood, and he goes to me: 'Against the quick bowlers, make sure your back lift is short, and then when it's at the stumps, just protect it. And if it's short, just drop your hands. I don't give a f*** if it hits your face or wherever. You've got your helmet on; you're not going to get out.'

So that's all he said, and I thought, 'Let me just remember these two points and let's see if I can get through it.' Jimmy was saying, 'I'll take the spinners, you take the seamers.'

Panesar: Shane Warne's critique did affect me at the time

The British media saw Shane Warne as the Messiah of cricket, really. Whatever he said was gospel and then they kind of exploded it in the media. I wish I'd taken him out for pizza or something and just sat down one-to-one, away from the game.

He could have said to me: 'Look, Monty, you're just bowling the same way, you're not really thinking how to get batsmen out. Maybe try to do different things, look at your techniques, or go and chat to your captain, have a bit of a timeout, change the field.'

I think the media were looking at every little variation. As a spinner, you naturally drag it down sometimes, you naturally bowl it slower. Every pitch doesn't have the same pace. You naturally work these things out, but sometimes you don't know how to explain it.

It probably did affect me at the time because everyone was just talking about variation. Even my friends who knew nothing about cricket were asking, 'How's your variation going?'.