Re: Super Cricket- England in SA : Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:22 am  

The Angry Pirate wrote:

Disgrace is a bit strong to be honest.

I'm certainly not a huge fan of the whole Pietersen persona, but since losing the captaincy, an important factor in his dip in form is almost certainly his injury, resulting operation and now lack of vital match practice, which is more down to the ridiculous tour schedules that are common in modern cricket.

In the good old days, before central contracts and back to back Test matches, KP would have had valuable recuperation time, playing in low-key county games and warm up tour matches....Now its all big match after big match, whether it be 20/20, One-Day internationals, or the current Test series.

KP could do a lot worse than withdrawing from the forthcoming IPL's and spending some time with his county in the spring, in an attempt to get himself back into the groove.

Couldn't agree more. I posted this on the barmy army forum the other day.....

His lack of form is worrying but I think he is the type of person that is mentally strong enough to come through all that has happened in his cricketing life in the past couple of years and get back to his best.

Dropping him is simply not an option. He is without any doubt whatsoever England's best batsman by a country mile and everyone has poor spells with the bat (Ricky Ponting is a case in point right now). England must stick with him.

Something I would like to see though, which I doubt will happen, is for him to turn his back on a small fortune in the IPL this year. I would like to think he realises he needs to occupy the crease, score some runs and find some form for England, who better to do that against than Bangladesh

Re: Super Cricket- England in SA : Sat Jan 09, 2010 8:01 am  

The unfortunate thing for Pietersen is an awful lot of England supporters still possess the 80's/90's thinking of various management teams, and want players dropped after a handful of iffy displays. Happily, modern-day England head honchos don't display such hair-trigger attitudes. The likes of Hick, Ramprakash and several others must look on with envy at the current set-up.

I do agree to an extent about KP taking time out of the IPL, but it's his decision. Besides which, don't be too surprised if he reels off a 150+ score in the final test.

Re: Super Cricket- England in SA : Sat Jan 09, 2010 9:44 am  

I don't see a problem with KP, he is stuggling for form but his average in this series was still good until the last Test. He is still coming back from his injury which often takes time and imo he is still England's best player by some distance. He does get himself out at times with his style of batting but that same style also tears the opposition apart so I would rather he did not change too much.

Re: Super Cricket- England in SA : Sat Jan 09, 2010 10:07 am  

Sexual Deviant wrote:

The unfortunate thing for Pietersen is an awful lot of England supporters still possess the 80's/90's thinking of various management teams, and want players dropped after a handful of iffy displays. Happily, modern-day England head honchos don't display such hair-trigger attitudes. The likes of Hick, Ramprakash and several others must look on with envy at the current set-up.

I do agree to an extent about KP taking time out of the IPL, but it's his decision. Besides which, don't be too surprised if he reels off a 150+ score in the final test.

Of course it is. It would just be refreshing though if he valued the England team and his own personal contribution to that team higher than his bank balance. I doubt it though.

Peter Siddle has done today exactly what I would like KP to do. He has realised he is struggling for form and/or wickets and has ruled himself out of the IPL in favour of putting in some hard yakka for his country

Re: Super Cricket- England in SA : Sat Jan 09, 2010 11:53 am  

The Angry Pirate wrote:

Disgrace is a bit strong to be honest.

I'm certainly not a huge fan of the whole Pietersen persona, but since losing the captaincy, an important factor in his dip in form is almost certainly his injury, resulting operation and now lack of vital match practice, which is more down to the ridiculous tour schedules that are common in modern cricket.

In the good old days, before central contracts and back to back Test matches, KP would have had valuable recuperation time, playing in low-key county games and warm up tour matches....Now its all big match after big match, whether it be 20/20, One-Day internationals, or the current Test series.

KP could do a lot worse than withdrawing from the forthcoming IPL's and spending some time with his county in the spring, in an attempt to get himself back into the groove.

May have gone abit far using the term disgrace but he has been very average over the past couple of years by his standards and for a guy of such unbelievable talent thats not good enough. I suppose his form in the ashes before his op was understandable as he looked in agony and now he's trying to re-find his feet in the hardest possible format of the game without any real warm up's.

Overall though he's showed poor form before that injury and just doesn't look a happy bloke right now. I'd also like to think he'd turn down the IPL money but he just doesn't seem the sort. He is a guy that seems to play for himself and for the rewards that come with that and i get the feeling a hundred in an IPL game would mean just as much to him as a test hundred for England would because he's get just as much exposure from it.

IPL or no IPL though i hope he finds some form for England soon enough because even though he may be an arrogant guy who seems to play for himself theres nothing quite like watching him in top form. He is so entertaining and can take games away from opposition teams in the blink of an eye. He's got an opportunity in the next 3 test series after this to really up his averages(something i'm sure he prides himself on) and refind his best form in the lead up to the Ashes.

We'll need an on form Pietersen for that without doubt.

Re: Super Cricket- England in SA : Sun Jan 10, 2010 12:10 pm  

Gale to captain The Lions.

Rashid & Wainwright in too.

Re: Super Cricket- England in SA : Mon Jan 11, 2010 1:32 pm  

Bang wrote:

Gale to captain The Lions.

Rashid & Wainwright in too.

Interesting choices, particularly the skipper.

I get the feeling they picked this Lions squad and then had a panic over who should captain it.

Wainwright showed himself to be a handy one-day bowler for Yorkshire last year while Rashid was away on England duty, but could find his county place in the longer form in jeopardy if Rafiq continues to develop.

[John_D]

Re: Super Cricket- England in SA : Mon Jan 11, 2010 1:37 pm  

Ian Bell - an apology

Ian Bell - an apology

Re: Super Cricket- England in SA : Mon Jan 11, 2010 4:07 pm  

Andy Gilder wrote:

Interesting choices, particularly the skipper.

I get the feeling they picked this Lions squad and then had a panic over who should captain it.

Full Lions squad...
Andrew Gale, Ian Bell, Michael Carberry, Michael Lumb, James Taylor, Craig Kieswetter, Steven Davies, Peter Trego, James Tredwell, Adil Rashid, Sajid Mahmood, Chris Woakes, Steven Finn, Steve Kirby, David Wainwright

Only 4 seamers in the squad may be a little short-sighted but Trego can bowl medium-pace as well. Good to see the likes of Finn, Wainwright and Woakes included as I think they could all be pushing for further honours in the next couple of years.

Re: Super Cricket- England in SA : Tue Jan 12, 2010 2:49 am  

Bang wrote:

Gale to captain The Lions.

Rashid & Wainwright in too.

I feel Graeme Swann may well be given some time off on the Bangladesh tour and Adil Rashid may be given a test match or 2 to show what he can do.....