He may be axed from the England’s set-up earlier this year but batting stalwart Kevin Pietersen is using most of the ‘˜free’ time in playing cricket.
He may be axed from the England’s set-up earlier this year but batting stalwart Kevin Pietersen is using most of the ‘free’ time in playing cricket.
The South African-born star will be one of the star players in the forthcoming Indian Premier League which kicks off from April 16 in Abu Dhabi. The 33-year-old all-rounder, who is Delhi’s second costliest purchase ($1.5 million) after his deputy Dinesh Karthik ($2.08 million), is confident of a good showing by his team after the management decided to make ‘KP’ the skipper.
But will he have a good outing? The whole of England will have one eye on the lucrative league when Kevin Pietersen takes the field.
So is Kevin Pietersen a good skipper? Pietersen’s mantra is, “According to me, the key to success this time around would be to make sure that the management, the captain and the coach understand each player and let every single individual be themselves. Also, the idea will be to train well in whatever way we can and try to perform to the best of our abilities.” Even though some of the criticism he has faced after the disastrous Ashes series, Kevin Pietersen has not lost hope yet. The former England star will be playing ‘first ever’ full Indian Premier League and even though he has nothing to prove, the star batsman’s availability can be good for the IPL.
Current England team captain, Alastair Cook stated that Kevin Pietersen’s ouster from the set-up was a brave call. But Pietersen’s presence was highly missed when the English T20 side exited early from the 2014 World Cup in Bangladesh.
One may see Kevin Pietersen’s short tenure as England skipper as very ‘rough’ and ‘sceptical’. He hardly won any games and also had a fall-out with then coach, Peter Moores. But here, Kevin returns to don the same role but with a different flavour. And what’s more, he will be having around former South African batting icon, Gary Kirsten in the dug-out as the coach.
Kevin Pietersen has a point to prove here. Even if he does want to show it, let the bat do the talking and everything will fall into perspective.
