Kevin Pietersen - The missing link in the jigsaw puzzle

England sorely missed Kevin Pietersen

A little less than a decade ago, England’s A squad was touring the length and the breadth of India, as they were taking part in the prestigious Duleep Trophy tournament. Just like their senior colleagues, they too seemed to be weary of facing Indian spinners on turning tracks. It felt like England A’s batsmen were searching for king cobras and common Indian Kraits that were secretly hidden beneath the track by Indian groundsmen to spit venom at the batsmen.

Just when it seemed like South Zone’s spinners would make England A’s batsmen dance to their spinning tunes, like a true knight in shining armour, out came Kevin Peter Pietersen. With a brisk-gait to the crease when he took the guard, his bizarre hair style, made one laugh aloud. However, there was nothing funny about his batting.

In a matter of few minutes, Pietersen reduced the stratagem of well thought-out field placings to a lottery by sending the ball scurrying to the boundary, no less than sixteen times. Spin twins, Sunil Joshi and Ramkumar of South Zone were reduced to the level of net bowlers. Due to Venugopal Rao’s spine-tingling double-hundred, Pietersen’s scintillating century went in vain. But that buccaneering innings by KP served up ample proof of what was in store for bowlers all over the world.

Since that stunning century against South Zone, KP has gone on to become a glittering star of world cricket. He has played knocks that can only be described as dramatic and brutal. He hasn’t just won games single-handedly with his exhilarating and eye-catching stroke-play. But has many times, taken the wind out of opposition’s key bowler’s sails.

We saw that last year when KP scripted three knocks of breathtaking beauty against Sri Lanka, South Africa and India, respectively. While facing up to the marauding Steyn at Headingley last year, it didn’t look like the world’s best pacer was bowling. Instead, for perhaps the first time in his career, Steyn for a while seemed to be scared to death to bowl to KP.

It’s high-octane viewing when Kevin Pietersen, is in full flow

At Mumbai, he swatted spinners of the caliber of Ojha and Ashwin like flies with all those heart-stirring, crisply played lofted shots, stupefying sweeps, debonair drives and lissome flicks. That day, his magic bat explored every nook and cranny of the Wankhede Stadium. His aura is such that his mere presence at the crease puts doubt in a bowler’s mind, and gives a migraine to the captain, while setting a field.

So, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that when England’s batsmen struggled for scoring options against Indian spinners on a slightly abrasive surface in the final of Champions trophy at Edgbaston, they were missing KP. Ian Bell, Trott and Cook are fine players in their own right. But the X-factor in that England line-up is always reserved for one man, and that is KP.

Kevin Pietersen with his twinkling footwork, and by lofting spinners down the ground, would have taken the fight to the Indian spinners. Once KP disrupts a spinner’s length with his sweeps, and lofted shots, he uses the depth of the crease to stay back, and wait for a few long hops on the way. He also usually looks to play out the best bowler in the opposition’s ranks. It shows, there is more to Pietersen’s batting than just tonking bowlers all over the park, as he plans, analyses and executes those plans to perfection.

As the game against India in the final was reduced to virtually a 20-over dogfight, one can turn back the pages in KP’s career, and look at how he played in the one-off T20 match at Kolkata in 2011-12. On a track that had variable bounce, and offered considerable assistance for spinners, chasing even a paltry score of 121 was a daunting task. Barring Jadeja though, none of the Indian bowlers had an answer while bowling to Pietersen. KP showed us, he was a clever batsman too, by putting India’s weak-link, Yousuf Pathan, to the sword.

Now, not for even one minute, I am trying to suggest that if KP was around, the victory against an on-song Indian side was a mere formality. Even if KP was playing, it could have very well panned out into an anti-climax, with him getting out to the first ball he faced. But the way England’s top-order stumbled and floundered, while playing Indian spinners, there was no question that KP was the missing-link in the jigsaw puzzle. Remember, England won their only ICC tournament in West Indies in 2009-10, due to KP’s Herculean efforts.

The egotistic, Kevin Pietersen, always divides opinions among cricket lovers. However, there is no doubt that he is a god-gifted batsman, and a true game-changer. Pietersen’s batting is like watching a James Bond movie with full of slick plot-twists, and high-adrenaline action. Even the cricket boards all over the world like KP to play, as he puts more bums on the seats. In short, cricket aficionados all over the world missed England’s talismanic batsman in action during the Champions trophy.