Afghanistan are getting ready to play their maiden Test match, against India in the same city from Thursday, and no one who has followed the game needs to be told what a momentous and historic occasion it will be when the 11 cricketers from the war-ravaged country walk out in their whites.

Two days before the Test, Pietersen spoke directly to the team, led by Asghar Stanikzai and starring the likes of Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi.

“At that moment, you will feel a surge of adrenaline, a moment that trumps anything I have experienced in life because you know how difficult it is, how unlikely it was and, uniquely in your case, you will not only have succeeded as a Test cricketer but you will have done so as a pioneer. Someone who brought your nation into the Test-match arena, in which our heroes have been competing for 150 years and made your own piece of history.

“The headline writers around the globe are waiting! You are changing the perception of your country that has been in the news for the wrong reasons for far too long. Far from Test cricket dying, you are creating a new beginning. And my dearest hope is that the administrators of cricket around the world can do everything within their power to harness that momentum across India, the subcontinent and beyond.

“And last but most definitely not least, when you are at the crease; when you have played yourselves in; when you decide to take the attack to the bowlers, commit yourselves fully. Not just to attack. But to entertain. Play in the spirit of the great Tiger Pataudi. And if you take his values onto the square then whatever you achieve in this game and wherever it takes you, you will never regret a moment of it.”