Why Kevin Pietersen can't seal his spot in the England team

Kevin Pietersen saga

The heat of the Ashes is taking control over the cricket fraternity, but Barmy Army are still not on a roll. Despite an impressive first game, the home side was thrashed at Lords in a humiliating manner.

The Lions’ batting line up was ripped apart in both innings, especially the top order. That doesn’t mean this side is not talented, of course they are. They also have a nice balance of young and experienced players.

Then what’s the problem? Is the absence of stalwarts like Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen hurting them that much? Trotty has had his say but is KP eligible for this team?

The turmoil started in the last Ashes when ‘English’ lost their grounds. The settled England team started falling apart as the players couldn’t match the class of the mighty Australians. The blame was tagged to the whole team, and then ‘KP’ got fired. Well that happens, the Indian team lost to the same English side back in 2012 at home and all the stones went to seniors like Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. They are still trying to cut in, but by they haven’t been able to move past RANJI and IPL.

The scenario with ‘KP’ is different, instead of going back to County he went to Twitter and took on the ENGLAND CRICKET BOARD. And that is offensive!!

Of course, Pietersen is one of Legendary Batsman of ENGLAND, played 104 tests, piled up more than 8000 runs with 23 centuries. He’s been around for quite a significant time, but that doesn’t authorize him to go beyond the line.

The grit and emotions are necessary, but that can be thrown away with the beautiful swing of ‘Cricket bat’ rather than exchanging words outside of the ground. That’s where a class batsman like Pietersen got bowled all ends up.

English Cricket is suffering since then but attempts have been made to get over it. But let me remind you, those attempts were made on Ground rather than outrages on microblogging sites. The result is mirrored by their 3-2 triumph against strongest NewZealand side ever.

The arrival of Ashes 2015 gripped KP again as he levelled it a way back to “English Dressing Room”. The destructive batsman made it count as he smashed sensational 355 not out for Surrey. But complete denial of new Director and his former team-mate Andrew Strauss again hit him hard as he couldn’t see a value in it.

KP left the county season again in search of some sympathy over Twitter. For me, ‘he could have stayed’, could have tried hard to make up with the board and might have been helpful to heal the top order woes of England. But maybe the passion to play for a national side is dimmed for him and he is happy with shorter formats, travelling around the globe and entertain people or ‘himself’.

The other side

It’s pretty obvious that England Cricket is in a transition phase. With the exit of KP, many talented ones trying to sneak in and doing it effectively.

Recently dropped Gary Ballance did well against India last summer. Joe Root is one of the sparks of the future. Moeen Ali is proving himself at points and Jos Butler seems to do well as he is a promising cricketer. Ben Stokes has the ability to replicate ‘Freddie’ Flintoff and recent add on Johny Bairstow is at his best.

I am leaving out some exciting county cricketers as they haven’t caught the spotlight but doing great in the middle. So is England really in the mode of accepting Pietersen? This pool of talent may be clicking randomly but as Indian captain MS Dhoni always talks about ‘positives’, England can eye building a team, and yes without Pietersen.

The rage won’t get over, yes it won’t. English just can’t forget the ‘Word-WAR’ with KP, and with the combo of COOK and STRAUSS it won’t be healing.

KP may have a huge fan base, but he has to remember that cricket has this powerful thing to ‘Move Quickly’. The rest of the Ashes is pretty exciting and England haven’t been written off by cricket experts.

But at the end of the day, one thing is sure that if this Micheal Clarke led side is unable to win the English summer, then KP may be finding his name on Page 3, and might rest in the history of cricket as the 2005-06 Ashes hero and T20 World Cup hero. He won’t get a chance to say goodbye properly like other legends did to the ‘gentleman’s game’.