KP as he is fondly called as by his fans, well-wishers and the rest of the world, is someone who could have accomplished a lot more than what he eventually did but fell way too short. Much of it was due to his own personality. He was an extraordinary batsman who just couldn’t come to terms with the system. The range of strokes, the sheer audacity to bat in a way much different from the rest are characteristics that marked Kevin the batsman. He must have gone down in history as the greatest batsman to have played for England but he ended up as amongst the many men who played for England. Kevin Pietersen was an enigmatic personality.
Born in South Africa and moved to England upon the advise of Clive Rice, Kevin had everything that he would have wished for but he lost the same things that he so dearly wanted. He had the ability to manufacture shots out of the ordinary and make excellent bowlers look ordinary. Did such a maverick really tick all the boxes? The answer I am afraid is in the negative.
The wonderful debut series
The year was 2005 and the stage was The Ashes. England having endured morale sapping and energy depriving loss after loss, England were quietly confident. They had a team that may just be able to upset the incredible Australians. England had an excellent bowling attack with 3 bowlers capable of bowling at 145KMPH and in Michael Vaughan, they had a good captain. One slot was still open with both KP and Ian Thorpe competing. Conventional wisdom dictated Thorpe to be selected whereas youthful exuberance wanted KP in the squad. The English selectors who are known for conservative approach, decided to trust their instincts and picked KP for Thorpe.
It was a brilliantly inspired move and the rest as they say was history. KP was excellent throughout the series and he topped it off with a magnificent 100 that helped England win the Ashes for the first time in 18 years. A potential great batsman had arrived on the stage. Great things were expected of him. Did it really materialise? There were some astonishing innings but there were also equally astounding failures.
The reverse sweep
Was it reverse sweep or was it reverse pull or reverse hoick? It takes incredible skill to hit a delivery over long on while reverse sweeping. Pietersen had that skill. Reverse sweep wasn’t new. It was played by various batsmen at various stages but it was more of a proper sweep because it is a tough shot to play. Pietersen however, was not an ordinary batsman. The audacity of that shot prompted the MCC to deliberate a change in law. There were lot of deliberation to ban the shot entirely without realising the fact that only the supremely skilled batsman will be able to play such a daring and brave shot. Thankfully, better sense prevailed. The MCC decided against banning the shot. Now, this shot has become more of a norm than an exception. It will not be wrong to credit Pietersen with mainstreaming this shot.
A couple of brilliant innings
England will forever be indebted to Pietersen for the excellent 153 at The Oval in the final test in 2005 that gave England the Ashes but there were few other innings that was absolutely sublime. The one that comes immediately to the mind of an Indian was the masterful 186 at Mumbai that swung the series towards England decisively. Kevin at that stage had a problem with left-arm spinners. In the previous series in Bangladesh, he remained virtually strokeless. Hence, when he came to India, Pragyan Ojha was expected to spin a web around Pietersen and he did in the first test but things took a different turn in the 2nd test.
The pitch had turn and bounce. England were expected to lie down and surrender. It was time for KP to standup. He was reintegrated into the team after the acrimonious series against South Africa.
Pietersen: It was a big tour, one where we needed all our big players playing well. We had a strong team, a very confident team. Everybody knew what they were doing and understood their roles.
We’d raised the bar from any other England Test team I’d played in. This was going to be our greatest Test. We’d beaten Australia at home, we’d beaten Australia away, but beating India away was going to be an incredibly difficult experience.
Pietersen was quite determined
As Pietersen himself says, he took aside Andy Flower and Mushtaq Ahmed and practised for an hour. He was ready.
The previous few days of practice in Mumbai were some of the best days I’ve had practising in an England shirt. The way that I had solved the issue of my foot movement, the way I was striking the ball, the way I was trusting my defence… I knew I had a chance of scoring runs.
The strokeplay was awesome. The footwork was immaculate. Big stride forward or on the backfoot or from time to time, skip down the track. He destroyed Ojha and thereby effectively demoralised the entire Indian contingent. He marked his hundred with a raise of bat and hugged his captain, Alastair Cook, who fought for KP to be brought back into the side. For the Indian supporters, it was an innings that turned the series on its head. England went onto the win the series in the very next test.
KP’s best innings according to him
Pietersen himself does not consider this innings to be his best. He prefers the 151 against Sri Lanka at Colombo to be his best innings.
Mentally I didn’t think I’d be able to score more than 40 or 50 in Sri Lanka. I have air conditioning going in our house in the middle of winter because I sweat so much. Coming from Durban, it’s odd to say I can’t tolerate heat, but I can’t. The humidity kills me.
To score those kind of runs, I thought it would be physically and emotionally impossible, never going to happen. I knew the only way I was going to was just swing. ‘If it’s up, it’s off’. That’s the approach I used in Sri Lanka. Scoring runs in India was never a problem; I always scored runs in India
It was a blistering attack on the hapless Sri Lanka bowlers. Pietersen cracked 15 fours and 6 sixes. Just watch the highlights package on YouTube. It was an innings of sheer beauty. It had everything. The pull of the backfoot, the cover drive and the straight drive. The innings can be celebrated for pure aesthetic beauty.
Other blogs about England