Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen recently expressed his opinions on England’s pace attack in the ongoing Ashes Test at Edgbaston, Birmingham. The courageous captaincy of Ben Stokes has been a focal point in the opening match of the five-match series. On the first day, Stokes declared the innings at 393/8, with Joe Root’s brilliant century (118* off 152) being the highlight, marking his 30th century in Test cricket.

Stokes played a significant role by dismissing the crucial wicket of Steve Smith, while Moeen Ali contributed with two wickets. England’s trio of fast bowlers, James Anderson, Stuart Broad, and Ollie Robinson, combined to take seven wickets. Despite their success, Pietersen believes that the current English pacers should not be regarded as intimidating. He even compared them to former players Mitchell Johnson and Shoaib Akhtar, emphasizing that the current lineup lacks the same level of pace.

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“There’s a reason why the bowlers targeted [Travis] Head with short deliveries because we do feel, well everybody feels he has an issue. And I don’t mean to be disrespectful at all to the single bowling lineup, but they’re not to be feared. And I’ll say that from a pace-wise perspective, where you’ve got guys bowling at 80 miles an hour, 83 miles an hour. You don’t have Mitchell Johnson running in at 95 or Shoaib Akhtar, or even Woody [Mark Wood]. Woody will run in and he will test you?” Kevin Pietersen shared his thoughts with Sky Sports.

Pietersen further discussed Travis Head’s struggle against short deliveries, suggesting that the Australian batter aims to be more aggressive. The former cricketer drew a parallel to his former teammate Jonathan Trott, who encountered a similar situation during his playing days.

“When you get targeted with a short ball, it rocks your foundations as a batter. I remember that with Jonathan Trott when he went through that period batting at three for us, and everybody started to go short to him. It really rocked his foundations as a batter. So it’s an issue for Head,” Kevin Pietersen explained.

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Australia was dismissed for 386 during the first session of Day 3. However, Australia’s Pat Cummins and Scott Boland removed England’s openers, Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley, on the rain-shortened third day. As Day 3 concluded, England finished at 28/2, holding a lead of 35 runs over Australia.