Kevin Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen Biography

Kevin Pietersen is a South African origin cricketer who began his cricket in South Africa but ended it in England. He was born on June 26, 1980 in Pietermaritzburg, Natal in South Africa.

He is a right handed batsman and sometimes shows skills as a right hand off break bowler as well.

Background

Kevin Pietersen started playing for Natal B team in South Africa at the age of 17. His knocks took him to England for County Cricket where he was offered to play for England by an English coach.

Kevin accepted the offer as he was upset with the Racial Quota in South Africa. He was required to play for an English County for four years, and his excellent performance in those matches for Nottinghamshire earned him a place in the English national team immediately after.

Debut

Kevin Pietersen made his ODI debut against Zimbabwe in November, 2004 at Harare. He played a safe innings in his first match and returned unbeaten after taking the team to victory.

His aggressive knock of an unbeaten 77 runs in the next match earned him his first Man of the Match title and a fixed spot in the national team.

Rise to Glory

Kevin was in team for the South Africa series that followed and his appearance made the series a controversial one. He was criticised by the South African crowd after he hit a century to help England tie the match. They labelled him as a traitor but Pietersen had no effect on him.

He went on to score 75, 100 and 116 in the other matches to clinch the Player of the Series award and his Test and T20 spot as well. He performed exceptionally on field and with 34 runs and 3 catches, but couldn't help England win the match in its first T20 international.

While he debuted in Test during the 2005 Ashes, he made back to back fifties but no century. On the top of that, he fielded poorly and Australia won the Ashes 5-0.

Kevin performed better than the rest in the matches to come against India and Sri Lanka. He showed off his brand new Palti Hit ( Switch Hit) against Sri Lanka in 2006 on Muttiah Muralitharan and subsequently went on to hit more centuries.

His memorable knock in 2010 ICC World T20 finals helped England to take home their first ICC Championship.

Club Career

Kevin has been a consistent club player and has played for teams like Royal Challengers Bangalore, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Delhi Daredevils, etc. in Indian Premier League. He has also played in the Pakistan Super League for Quetta Gladiators and Melbourne Stars of the Big Bash League.

Captaincy

After Michael Vaughan stepped down as the captain, Kevin was given his place which he had previously refused to take. But leading the team, he swept South Africa 4-0, but couldn't prevent the loss against India by 5-0 in 2008.

He continued to perform well but his differences with his teammates and coach John Moore couldn't make him a successful captain. Eventually, he resigned and Moore was dismissed.

Retirement

Kevin announced retirement in 2012 but was rehired by the England Cricket Board later that year. He went on to make some good knocks but eventually his differences with team management and members made him retire again in 2014.