What Has Happened to Kevin Pietersen?
It was five years ago that Kevin Pietersen made his debut in English test cricket and immediately impressed everyone with his incredible skills, so why today with another test match about to start is he totally unable to regain form that he lost quite some time ago?
Apart from a few off days, everything went well. He was even made captain of England for a while, but that ended in tears when he and the England coach Peter Mores fell out so badly and so publically. This ended in Mores losing his job and Pietersen losing his captaincy.
That event back in January 2009 seems to have been the moment Pietersen’s batting skills took a severe downturn. In all the time since then he has made but one century, whilst the year before he made five of them. In ODIs he has played ten innings and his best score was 48.
There are some obvious areas where his technique is lacking. One is his inability to handle conventional left arm spin bowlers. He does not seem to be able to pick the balls and seems to be bewildered by their flight. His defensive strokes are unsure and this makes him insecure generally.
Not everyone agrees that the problem is psychological and related to losing the captaincy. Phil Tufnell, himself a slow left arm spin bowler, believes that Pietersen’s loss of form is due to the injury he suffered which put him out of the sport for too long. He said that Pietersen needed to concentrate on rebuilding his confidence. He should learn to play each ball on its merits.
Whatever the reason, England selectors are sticking with him and he still has his fans. Steve Waugh said that Pietersen was a great player and played best against strong opposition. He predicted that he will be the leading run scorer when England play Australia in the Ashes.
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