Former England captain Kevin Pietersen is seeing red as news filters in that apart from England giving rest to Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, and Mark Wood for the first two Test matches against India in Chennai, keeper Jos Buttler will also be available for the first Test only.
Though England will have the services of Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes, and Rory Burns, Pietersen is extremely peeved with ECB’s decision of resting key players for the India Tests, especially after the Indians beat Australia in Australia 2-1 in the Test series.
Jonny Bairstow is one of the best players of the spin in the England team along with captain Joe Root, given that the first two Tests will be played in Chennai where the pitch is known to take spin. But him not being available for those Tests have made Pietersen quite unhappy.
He tweeted, “Big debate on whether ENG have picked their best team to play India in the 1st Test. Winning IN India is as good a feeling as winning in Aus. It’s disrespectful to ENG fans & also @BCCI to NOT play your best team. Bairstow has to play! Broad/Anderson have to play!”
While Ben Foakes will take over from Buttler as keeper in Tests, ECB’s resting policy for its all-format players was criticized by Pietersen. This policy aims to provide multi-format players a block of rest at some point during the post-Christmas winter schedule.
With this policy, ECB aims to protect their best players during a year when they will play 17 Tests and contest a Twenty20 World Cup.
The players also have to deal with living life in bio-secure bubbles as well. They had previously rested Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes for the Sri Lanka Tests, while Burns stayed home for the birth of his child.
Pietersen further said that the best England players need to play all the matches against India and then can have a rest after playing in IPL and earning all the money they want.
The first Test between India and England begins from February 5 onwards in Chennai.
