'I'LL SOLDIER ON WITH BARMY ARMY'

But he said: "I'm excited about the Ashes. I enjoy big crowds. There will be a few English voices and the Barmy Army will be in full flow which is a huge boost – it helped me in India.

"My main focus is always my bowling and fielding, but sometimes they ask me for a smile and wave and it is nice to have that interaction.

"I'm not really worried about the Aussie crowd and what they might say, but if they ask for a wave I will definitely give them one."

The left-armer took the most wickets (27) for England in last summer's Tests, and has admirers in Australia, including Rod Marsh and Darren Lehmann, who even called him "a beautiful lad".

There is also a sizeable Sikh community Down Under, making up 14 per cent of the Indian population there.

"I made [Sikh] friends in Sydney and Adelaide when I was at the academy," said Panesar, "so it will be nice to catch up with them."

There are only 37 days until the first Test, but Panesar cut a cool figure at npower's spin workshop in Swindon yesterday.

And if he does ‘cop flak' from the home support, he has some advice from Sir Richard Hadlee.

"Greg Chappell took me aside and said if you show [Aussie] crowds they are getting to you it will only get worse," said Hadlee.

"Greg said, ‘Do your talking with the ball', and at the end of the day there were more Test wickets for me against Australia than any other nation."