Life and Career
The off-spinner has been largely backup to Ashley Giles throughout his career, though he did play four Tests in the English tour of the subcontinent in 2003, as conditions favoured the inclusion of a second spinner in a team. He was picked the tour of the West Indies in 2003/04. Batty was the bowler Brian Lara faced when he scored his world record 400th run in the fourth Test Match in Antigua. He was picked as second spinner for the South African tour the next season.
The selectors continued to show faith in him, picking him for the two Tests against Bangladesh in 2005 when Giles suffered a hip injury - in the first, he did not bat, did not bowl, and but for Bangladeshi resilience in the second innings, he might have gone through the entire series without bowling. He has gone down to the spinning pecking order due to the emergence of Monty Panesar and re-emergence of Graeme Swann.
Read more about this topic: Gareth Batty
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