MONTY Panesar believes the best years of his cricket career are still ahead of him, for both Essex and England.

The 32-year-old spinner has not been selected for England since playing in Australia at the end of 2013.

But Panesar remains confident of being able to earn a recall.

“I feel my best years for England and Essex are still ahead of me,” said the former Sussex star.

“I feel as though I have a lot of cricket left in me and getting back in the England team is a very big ambition of mine.

“I want to put the hard work in first to continue to develop my game in a better way but if I do that then hopefully everything else will take care of itself.”

England have struggled to find a top class spinner since Graham Swann’s retirement in December 2013 and Panesar is still hopeful of adding to his 50 Test caps.

He is therefore eager for the new season to get underway and helping Essex challenge for honours. “I’m really looking forward to putting in some good performances for Essex and I want to contribute towards winning games for them,” said Panesar.

“I think it’s very possible we could do well this year too because we have a lot of players here in their mid 30s who still have their best years in front of them.

“We also have youngsters with huge drive who are doing well and there’s a very good balance in the squad.

“If we can also stick together then I think we can be very successful as a club.”

Panesar added he was keen to help make that happen by making sure he regularly performed at his best.

And he feels in great shape ahead of the new campaign as he strives to bring the good times back to the County Ground.

“My fitness is good and I feel as though I have better awareness about different areas of my game now,” said Panesar.

“I find it really interesting to see how successful Essex were in the 80s and 90s and hopefully we can bring that back to this club in the next decade too.”