No England player of the 21st century has generated as many column inches and online debate as Kevin Pietersen. When he left the international game in 2014, Wisden looked back on his remarkable career.
They were three shots – three shots from the bat of Kevin Pietersen – that changed English cricket history. The first Test at Lord’s in July 2005 was a hugely hyped event that pitted the all-conquering but ageing Australians, holders of the Ashes since 1989, against an emerging English side on a roll. It was the hardy old males against the ambitious young bucks – and it was going to be a fight to the death.
Or was it? England’s highly charged assault on the Australian batsmen – gunning them down for 190 – had been instantly nullified by Glenn McGrath. England’s vessel was listing badly. Pietersen, making his Test debut, survived that onslaught, circumspectly at first, and remained to play an innings of utmost importance, an innings that contained those three shots.
We had already seen what he could do. A month earlier, during a one-day international at Bristol, he had flayed Australia, stealing an unlikely win with a daring 91. But this was Test cricket – serious, nation-defining stuff. McGrath had left England reeling, and now Brett Lee and Shane Warne toyed with the wounded animal. At 101-8, the innings was sliding into oblivion.
It was once said of Frank Woolley that “his runs are thin-spun as he walks the tightrope between success and failure”. The same applies to Pietersen. He was capable of destroying any attack, yet of getting out in the most exasperating manner. His batting was seldom safe, rarely sensible, sometimes unsuccessful. But it was always memorable. The strange thing – if his book is anything to go by – is that he doesn’t seem inclined to remember much of it. Perhaps one day he will.
