Former captain Kevin Pietersen has slammed the England team and coach Chris Silverwood for their continuous criticism of the pitch, first in the second Test in Chennai and then in the third Test at Ahmedabad.
The visiting batsmen struggled against the Indian spinners on tracks that assisted spin, with England losing the second Test by 317 runs and the third Test, which was a pink-ball D/N Test, inside two days by 10 wickets.
Indian spinner Akshar Patel and R Ashwin made merry in Ahmedabad, as England was routed for 112 and 81 with Akshar taking 11 and Ashwin taking 7 wickets in the match. Zak Crawley made 53 in England’s 1st innings, while for India, Rohit Sharma slammed 66 runs in their first do.
England coach Chris Silverwood said on Friday he was considering making a formal complaint to the ICC. This didn’t sit well with Pietersen, who diagnosed a lack of honesty in England’s reaction to their defeat, criticized the selection of all three of James Anderson, Stuart Broad, and Jofra Archer in Ahmedabad.
He also suggested England should attempt to spend the time between now and the start of the Fourth Test eradicating flaws in their batting.
“If Chris Silverwood is now starting to complain and moan about the pitch,’ said Pietersen, ‘if the head coach is going to moan and complain, that is as defeatist an attitude as I have ever heard of. He should wind his neck in. If you point your finger at someone else, four fingers point back at you and that’s what England needs to remember,” Pietersen said.
“If it was me after this Test match, as an England player I would say, “You know what, I played badly, I have got a week now to try and play and practice as best as I can so that we can try and win the next Test match. Because winning the next Test match and winning two Test matches in India and drawing the series is a damned good feat,” he added.
Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma both spoke about how 21 wickets fell to straighter balls, which didn’t spin, and that batsmen from both sides didn’t bat well. Pietersen repeated their thoughts, saying England is being negative in their mindset in trying to get ICC to dock India WTC points.
“Instead of the negative, defeatist attitude, instead of blaming the ICC, blaming the pitch, trying to get India deducted points. I would be thinking, ‘Fine, 21 of us missed straight balls, let me go and sort my defense out against the straight ball and the spinner’,” the former England captain said.
Pietersen has loved India a lot. He was one of the first England players to participate in the IPL, despite the ECB being against it. His 186 on a rank turner in Mumbai during the 2012 England tour is regarded as one of the best innings by a foreign batsman in India.
He will be seen leading the England legends team in the upcoming Road Safety World Series 2021 to be played in Raipur.
He also spoke about the England team’s rotational policy, which has seen the likes of Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali going back home after playing one Test in the entire series and Jonny Bairstow missing the first two Tests. Pietersen said that England doesn’t have their best team in the series.
“England have not taken their best team to India. I don’t think anyone apart from the people at the ECB agrees with the rotation in a series of this magnitude. They are young and inexperienced and this is the most fabulous opportunity for them to realize how tough it is to bat in conditions like this. Their psyche should be that they are positive in how they approach the next Test match and accept they didn’t play well and that they need to work on their technique,” he said.
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He further said that when India visits England later in the year, he expects England to prepare green, seaming wickets for them to play.
“When India comes to England at the end of the summer, they are not going to prepare the flattest wickets for India to just bat for three days on. They will be green seaming wickets that will be prepared for home advantage. England chose three fast bowlers to play on a turning wicket, so England needs to look a bit closer to home before they start thinking about lodging huge complaints here, there, and everywhere,” Pietersen said.
(talkSPORT inputs)
