Panesar picks best batsmen of his playing days: Tendulkar, Sangakkara, Jayawardene

Former England spinner Monty Panesar dismissed Sachin Tendulkar four times in 11 Tests but says the Indian legend was the best batsman he played against alongside Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene.

Virender Sehwag was the "most destructive" of that era, Rahul Dravid was "The Wall", but the ability to change gears made Tendulkar the best.

Panesar, who played 50 Tests, got the better of Tendulkar in his debut game in Nagpur in 2006 before dismissing him twice in the Mumbai Test of 2012 when England won a rare series in India.

"Sachin was just ruthless. Once he got in, he would look to score big. But like any other batsman, he was vulnerable. He was on a different wavelength once set," the British-Indian cricketer told PTI from the UK.

"It was just hard to get Sachin out. With him, you were always like which gear he is going to take but you had to be competitive. Having said that, I backed myself to get him out."
"They were simply too good. I could not get them out in Sri Lanka. I didn't find Ricky Ponting that hard to be honest, Michael Clarke was harder. Ricky came hard at the ball against spin, so I felt I could get him out. But I was most scared of Sachin because he had different gears and could still bat long."