Former England captain Kevin Pietersen has slammed the England team management for the poor handling of Joe Denly after the Kent batsman was dropped from the national squad for the ongoing second Test against the West Indies at the Old Trafford Cricket Ground.
The 34-year-old, who has played 15 Tests for England so far, was dropped from the ongoing second Test after scoring 18 and 29 in the three-match Test series opener against the Windies at Southampton.
Denly spent nine years at the domestic circuit before getting selected to the England Test team for the 2018 Sri Lanka series, he has stayed at the crease for 100 balls or more on nine occasions that have been reported due to the team management and in fact, the term 'Dentury' was coined to describe it.
Reacting to the same, Pietersen has termed the handling of Denly as “atrocious”, saying dropping an “attacking batsman” after his failure in the first Test against the Windies is “truly abysmal” when they asked him to curb his natural game.
Pietersen wrote on ‘BetWay’: “The way that Joe Denly has been treated over the last two years, being told by senior management to just try and face 100 balls, is atrocious. I saw what Denly did in the Big Bash a couple of seasons ago. He turned up and started whacking everybody all around Australia. The guys at my team, Melbourne Stars, couldn’t believe what they were seeing.”
He added, “I played with him in the first part of his England career, too. He always looked to attack and get after the bowling. He has every shot. He’s got a wonderful cover drive, he plays the pull shot, he plays the hook shot.
I’d definitely like to see him be given the opportunity to go out and bat freely. If that doesn’t work then he’s not good enough for Test-match cricket. Good night. But you can’t tell him to change his ways, just face 100 balls, and then drop him because he doesn’t do it. It’s truly abysmal.”
The 40-year-old commentator also feels that the current England team has not been able to score 400 runs regularly and that is a big issue for them in the Test cricket.
He signed off, “Having done pretty well in South Africa, England didn't play as well as they should have done at the Ageas Bowl. It's so easy to start talking about the bowlers – particularly the absence of Stuart Broad – but the bigger talking point should be how they go about scoring 400 runs. They have a huge issue in the batting department and have done it for a while now. England used to score 400 regularly. Cook, Strauss, Trott, myself, Bell. We used to cream 400 runs. It is a strategy issue, for sure.”
(With PTI Inputs)
