Published 12:49 IST, June 29th 2020
Kevin Pietersen would've played more if Michael Vaughan remained captain: Geoffrey Boycott
Kevin Pietersen played almost a decade for England & starred in 104 Tests, 136 ODIs and 37 T20Is in which he scored over 13,000 runs with 32 international tons.
Former England cricket captain Kevin Pietersen was a flamboyant batsman, who was famous for his unorthodox and audacious shots. He is also one of the most loved cricketers in India. The Englishman has a huge fan following across the world. Kevin Pietersen played almost a decade for England and starred in 104 Tests, 136 ODIs and 37 T20Is in which he scored over 13,000 runs with 32 international hundreds.
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Geoffrey Boycott reckons Kevin Pietersen would have played longer if Michael Vaughan was his captain
The right-hander's career came to an abrupt end after the Ashes 2014 in Australia. In his final Test match, Kevin Pietersen could only manage 3 and 6 in the first and second innings respectively. A lot of cricket admirers believed that Kevin Pietersen was made the scapegoat of the 5-0 Ashes loss in Australia when his career could have gone longer.
Former England cricketer-turned-commentator Geoffrey Boycott is also of the same opinion and feels that if Michael Vaughan served as the skipper throughout Pietersen’s career, his career would have spanned longer. Michael Vaughan was Kevin Pietersen's first captain in international cricket as the flamboyant batsman made his ODI and Test debuts under his leadership with much success and fanfare.
On Sunday, Geoffrey Boycott took to Twitter to wish Kevin Pietersen, who turned 40. Wishing the right-hander, Geoffrey Boycott also picked Kevin Pietersen's innings in the second Test of the 4-match Test series in India in 2012 as one of the best innings he witnessed by any player.
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The sensational innings of 186 against India in 2012 are arguably one of the best innings played by an English batsman in the sub-continent. In the four-match series, England were trailing 0-1 after a humiliating defeat in Ahmedabad. In the second Test at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Kevin Pietersen struck a brilliant 186 alongside captain Alastair Cook, who made 122 as England won the match and then went on to win the series by 2-1.
However, a year after that, little could one have predicted that Kevin Pietersen's career would come to an abrupt end, He was not on good terms with the ECB and many of his former teammates primarily due to his willingness to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The South African-born cricketer won an IPL contract in 2009 itself alongwith Andrew Flintoff, increasing England's participation in the league at a time when England did not prioritize white-ball cricket. Kevin Pietersen also had a falling out with Andrew Strauss in 2012 itself by criticizing him in a series of text messages to South African players.
Kevin Pietersen says Steve Smith nowhere close to Virat Kohli
Recently, in an interview with Zimbabwean commentator Pommie Mbangwa, Kevin Pietersen was asked to pick between Virat Kohli and former Australia captain Steve Smith where the Englishman chose the India captain. The 40-year-old explained his answer by saying that Kohli is a 'freakshow'. He lauded the Indian captain's record to win games for India while chasing. Kevin Pietersen further said that with the amount of pressure Kohli lives under and succeeds to deliver more often than not, Steve Smith doesn't even come close.
While Smith has predominantly ruled the roost in Test cricket throughout their careers so far, Kohli has worked gradually on the longest format of the game to become arguably the most complete batsman in the modern game courtesy his ODI and T20I records. Many believe that the Smith-Kohli comparison is similar to the Lara-Tendulkar one of the 90s.
IMAGE COURTESY: AP
Updated 12:49 IST, June 29th 2020