London: Monty Panesar was called up Friday to fill the vacant spin berth for England's forthcoming three-Test tour of India.
The uncapped left-armer saw off competition from the likes of Ian Blackwell and Alex Loudon and with Ashley Giles still struggling with the hip injury that forced him to return early from Pakistan, Panesar will have hope to make his Test debut on the spin-friendly Indian pitches.
However, the selectors also announced that Blackwell had been placed on standby in the event that Giles failed to regain fitness.
Left-armer Blackwell has also been named in the England A squad to tour the West Indies as has off-spinner Loudon.
When the selectors named a 15-man squad earlier this month, including left-armer Giles - England's senior spinner - and Hampshire off-break veteran Shaun Udal, both of whom were involved in the recent 2-0 series defeat in Pakistan, they kept a place open for a third slow bowler.
Panesar, a 23-year-old England-born Sikh had already put himself in contention by taking 46 wickets for Northamptonshire at a cost of just 21.54 apiece in last season's County Championship.
"Monty has done very well for Northamptonshire over a period of time and I am sure he will be very excited at the prospect of touring India," said England's chairman of selectors David Graveney in a statement.
England's spin situation worsened on Tuesday when it was announced that Giles, a fixture in the Ashes winning team where his lower-order batting and safe gully catching were just as important as his bowling, was losing his battle to regain fitness following surgery.
"Ian Blackwell has been placed on standby to join the Test squad if Ashley fails to recover from his injury in time prior to the tour," Graveney added.
Commenting on Giles's injury, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief medical officer, Dr Peter Gregory, said: "The medical team's current view is that it is unlikely he will be fit for the start of the tour of India."
"But he will continue with his rehabilitation programme as pain allows and the medical team will continue to monitor his progress closely."
England coach Duncan Fletcher has made no sercet of his liking for players who have at least two strings to their bow and Panesar's batting and fielding are not as good as those of Alex Loudon and Blackwell, his main rivals for the third spinner spot.
However, earlier this month, Graveney, himself a former county spin bowler took the unusual step of endorsing Panesar in radio interview and the Northammptonshire bowler's call-up may also have owed something to the presence of former England spinner Geoff Miller on the selection panel.
Panesar himself has been working on his batting at Darren Lehmann's Academy in Adelaide and that could prove time well spent.
England's Test squad leaves for Mumbai on Febuary 12 and the first of three Tests is due to start, in Nagpur, on March 1.
Test Squad: Michael Vaughan (C), Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Stephen Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Geraint Jones (WK), Simon Jones, Kevin Pietersen, Monty Panesar, Liam Plunkett, Matthew Prior, Andrew Strauss, Marcus Trescothick, Shaun Udal.
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