Kevin Pietersen raises questions over England’s head coach’s attitude
As the highly-anticipated pink-ball Test match between India and England ended within just two days at the Narendra Modi Stadium and the hosts scripted a memorable victory by a massive 10 wickets, many veteran England players including Michael Vaughan, Alastair Cook, and Andrew Strauss questioned the nature of the pitch and blamed the hosts for making the surface favorable for them.
However, as opposed to the general notion among the England supporters, the former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen came out in the support of the home team and thrashed the visitors for blaming the pitch instead of their poor performance in the game. There are speculations that England’s head coach Chris Silverwood is in favour of lodging a complaint against the Ahmedabad pitch to the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Speaking about the same, Pietersen said that if Silverwood is going to crib about the pitch, then it will exhibit his attitude of a ‘defeatist’. The veteran further reminded the Brits that they can’t blame India as they also have pitches in England that support the English players.
“If Chris Silverwood is now starting to complain and moan about the pitch; if the head coach is going to moan and complain, that is as defeatist an attitude as I have ever heard of. He should wind his neck in. If you point your finger at someone else, four fingers point back at you and that’s what England needs to remember,” Pietersen said as quoted by the Daily Mail.
“If it was me after this Test match, as an England player I would say, ‘You know what, I played badly, I have got a week now to try and play and practise as best as I can so that we can try and win the next Test match. Because winning the next Test match and winning two Test matches in India and drawing the series is a damned good feat,” he added.
Use your bat, play straight, defend straight, play late, bat like Joe Root: Kevin Pietersen
Further during the interaction, Kevin Pietersen asserted that just like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma came out in the open to speak about the bad performance of batsmen from their side, the England team also needs to do an introspection on their batting. He signed off by advising the visitors to play bravely in the last Test instead of cribbing about the conditions.
“Virat Kohli spoke about it. Rohit Sharma spoke about it. They both said both teams didn’t bat well. So be honest. You’re allowed to be honest as a sportsman. They all got out to straight balls. So work on your defence. Use your bat, play straight, defend straight, play late, bat like Joe Root. Pretty damn simple,” Pietersen concluded.
