Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen believes England has ‘incredibly weak and inexperienced’ batting line-up for the forthcoming Ashes series Down Under, which will commence from November 23 in Brisbane. He thinks Ben Stokes’ absence will make the matters even worse for the visiting team.
“I think without [Joe] Root or Cook, that batting order is incredibly weak, incredibly inexperienced, and with Stokes maybe not going, I mean, it’s even worse. People say that ‘one bloke doesn’t make a team’, well, I mean one bloke who bowls 140kph, get important wickets, can hit 100 off 70 balls, can hit 200 off 100 balls in a Test match, and also, more importantly, catches everything at slip off the spinner, is a massive player. A massive, massive player,” quoted Pietersen to ESPNCricinfo.
He further added on his comment over England’s batting, “The opening batting with Cook that worries me. No 3 worries me, I think Root should bat at three, five worries me, six will worry me too if Stokes doesn’t go. I mean there’s a lot of numbers in that batting order. I’ve been in Australia this week, and they are very confident of their chances and they talk of some very big gaps in the English team.”
The former skipper of England thinks the team bonding will help England to do better in Australia as a team.
The stylish batsman said “When we had the great tour Down Under in 2010-11, we had the most incredible couple of nights out at the start of that tour, which brought the team so close together. I know that it sounds so stupid, but if you go and get hammered as a team on a night out — as senior and junior players — so long as you don’t do something ridiculously stupid, the bonds you can create there are better than any ridiculous sessions you can do in the forest in Germany. Those are the little bits and pieces of cricketing nous and sense of understanding a team that were good on that tour but horrendous in 2013-14.”
While commenting on Stokes’ incident, he lashes out the idea of drinking till 2:00 AM and getting caught fighting on the streets. However, he favors a few night outs with the players to make their bond even stronger.
“Do whatever you want, but don’t get caught drinking at 2 o’clock in the morning before a game, don’t get caught fighting in the streets, don’t get caught doing things you shouldn’t be doing before the games and, in particular, before training days, because those always stood me in good stead for when I went into battle,” he concluded.
The 38-year-old was there with the England Test team during last Ashes series in Australia, which they eventually lost by 5-0. Ever since Pietersen has not played for England and now there is no ray of hope for his return.
