'You Don't Have Mitchell Johnson..,' Kevin Pietersen Makes Bold Comments on England Bowling Attack
Kevin Pietersen with Ben Stokes (Twitter)
The first Ashes Test is underway and it is turning out to be an intense contest with both England and Australia giving their all. There have been lot of views circulating in world cricket regarding the current English team with Bazball being the centrestage of all discussions. Now, Kevin Pietersen, the former English cricketer who is actively involved in the game as a commentator and analyst has also come up with some sparkling views about English bowling line-up.
Pietersen said that the English pace attack in the first Ashes Test is good but it lacks that genuine pace which can rattle the opponents. He added that Head has an issue with the short ball but feels that England don't have someone like Mitchell Johnson and Shoaib Akhtar or even like Mark Wood who has been left out in the first Test.
"There's a reason why the bowlers targeted in there (short deliveries) because we do feel, well everybody feels he (Travis Head) has an issue. And I don't mean to be disrespectful at all to the single bowling lineup but they're (England pacers) not to be feared. And I'll say that from a pace wise perspective where you've got guys bowling at 80 mile an hour, 83 mile an hour. You don't have Mitchell Johnson running in at 95 or Shoaib Akhtar, or even Woody (Mark Wood). Woody will run in and he will test you?
The swashbuckling batter also added that Head was not convincing against short deliveries and feels that the foundation of batter gets rocked when you are targeted with short ball and one is not good at it.
“So you need to have your wits about you when it comes to that instinctive way of playing. Whereas against (Stuart) Broad at 82-83 and (Ollie) Robinson at 80-82. I'm sorry the way that he played it wasn't as good as he should be playing it and absolutely no way. So it's a problem and when you get targeted with a short ball, it rocks your foundations as a batter,” said Pietersen during an interaction on Sky Sports.
Pietersen also sighted Trott's example and said his foundations as a batter was rocked when he encountered brutal pace bowling of Mitchell Johnson.
“I remember that with Jonathan Trott, when Jonathan went through that period batting a three with us and everybody started to go short to him, it really rocked his foundations as a batter. So it's an issue for Head,” he added
England though have been very successful since Ben Stokes have taken over the captaincy role and it would be interesting to see how World Test Champions Australia go about their business against Stokes and company.
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