Kevin Pietersen (KP), the former stylish English cricketer, has recently taken retirement from all professional crickets. Recently, the former English right-handed batsman chose the top five bowlers he played with or against in his Test career.
Recently, in an interview with Cricket Australia, Kevin Pietersen revealed the top five bowlers he played with or against in his Test career. The 37-years old right-handed batsman played 104 Test matches where he scored total 8,181 runs with the average of 47.28. The stylish attacking batsman had a 61.72 strike-rate in his Test career, where he also scored 23 centuries and 35 half-centuries.
In that list, former Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne was on top of his list. The legendary spinner dismissed 5 times in Test cricket.
Also read: Shane Warne Comes Back To Rajasthan Royals As The Team Mentor
Former Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was the next bowler. KP mentioned him as a “silent assassin, off-spinner, doosra”. The legendary off-spinner succeeded six times to dismiss the right-handed attacking batsman.
The next man on his list was Pakistan pacer Mohammad Asif. The right-arm pacer dismissed him twice in Test cricket. KP spoke out about him, “His ability to accelerate off the wicket, I thought was just phenomenal.”
However, it is not the first time when KP chose Mohammad Asif as one of the best bowlers. In early 2017, he told Howie Games podcast, “The best bowler I faced was Mohammad Asif, the bowler from Pakistan who got done for [spot]-fixing. It was probably not a bad thing because he tormented a lot of batters.”
Talking about the Pakistani right-arm pacer’s ability, KP added, “Just his ability to make a batsman feel like the ball was accelerating off the wicket in different directions.”
Coming to the top five bowlers list, his English team-mate and the right-arm pacer James Anderson is at fourth on this list. KP told about the ability of James Anderson by quoting, “Even though I didn’t play against him, his ability in the nets to make you look like a complete fool was phenomenal. Newish ball, old ball, didn’t matter.”
Also read: James Anderson Defines Stuart Broad’s Role
Former Indian left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan was in the fifth position on that list. The left-arm reverse-swing specialist got him twice in Test meetings. Pietersen also praised him specially for the reverse swing ability. KP said, “His reverse swing, the way he’d hold the ball, his control with the reverse-swinging ball, phenomenal.”
Here is the video:
