Shortly before the start of this tour, Duncan Fletcher's book was published and included some negative comments about me.Unfortunately, I would have to say that spin was not his speciality.Duncan is a batting coach and I think he found it challenging to understand spin bowling.All the players he's done well with are batsmen.He hasn't done well with a spinner, has he? I can understand that, because batting was his thing. Spin wasn't.He was quite strong on the over-the-wicket approach because he worked with Ashley Giles.But who else has he worked with as a spinner? I have to say that he taught me a few things about bowling over the wicket — about angles and stuff like that, which kind of made sense. But his strength was coaching batsmen.

Panesar reckons Fletcher was better with the batsmen
In the book it says I joined England without an arm ball, but Nick Cook, who coached me at Northants, taught me a lovely arm ball and I've still got that, as you saw in the series against the West Indies during the summer.Some of my dismissals tended to be from balls that slid on.Like I said, spin was not Duncan's department.I'm not someone who looks at individual records too much, but I have already taken six five-fors in Test cricket.I didn't like the suggestion in the book that Northants haven't really helped much.I have been there for a long time and I've worked with various coaches there.They should get credit for that and shouldn't be undermined or underestimated.

I think Duncan could have shown a bit more thought before saying: 'Northants haven't done this or haven't done that.'I wouldn't be here playing for England without them, simple as that.They must be doing something right.Since arriving here, Peter Moores has said that I am the team's No 1 spinner in Test cricket and it is great to have the backing of the coach.He is a wicketkeeper, which really helps because he can see things that you don't.He also really understands spin.People may think there is extra pressure on me going into this series as a spinner up against Muttiah Muralitharan, but that's not how I see it.

How can I be a rival to him? How can the student be a rival to the teacher? The student cannot become the master, there is only one master and we all know who he is.I'm just a servant! Murali is incredible.In some ways I feel fortunate that — even though it will be against us — I will be there to witness it when he breaks the world record for Test wickets.He is so successful because he has so many different ways to attack a batsman.He knows how to bowl with different degrees of turn, bowl different angles and use all the tricks of a spinner.He has the whole package.Murali definitely turns the ball more than anyone I have ever seen.It is amazing what he has done for cricket and for spin bowling — both he and Shane Warne.They are the reason why the rest of us spinners get a bit of a mention. I have to thank those boys — before they came along, no one cared what spinners did. Sri Lanka have some seriously good attacking batsmen and, you never know, they could teach me a lesson here. It's going to be tough.In their own country, I'm sure they will look to dominate the opposition spinner, but I see that as an exciting challenge.Someone like Sanath Jayasuriya is capable of the same sort of assault that Adam Gilchrist hit me with in Perth last winter.He has all the shots and the confidence to go after me.But I believe I have more to fall back on now — different angles, different pace, different field settings and more experience.I'd like to think I'm better equipped to cope now compared to a year ago when Gilchrist went after me.David Parsons, England's spin coach, wasn't really involved then and he has been a great help to me — working on the thinking side of spin bowling as well as on the technical stuff.