Why Kevin Pietersen deserves to finish on a high

Not this way KP, not this way

It was the first ball he faced. Kane Richardson dug it in short. He pulled it, started to take off for a single before being asked by his partner to go back. As he did, something happened and it wasn’t pretty. Kevin Pietersen seemed to be in serious discomfort and replays showed that he had twisted his right leg.

The physio was out and players from the Royal Challengers Bangalore(RCB), including its captain and former teammate Virat Kohli, patted his back as he walked away, perhaps to try and reduce his disappointment.

It was a big blow no doubt for the Rising Pune Supergiants, who were chasing a stiff total in their first home match and him not making any contribution, was felt eventually as they fell short by 13 runs.

If you were an RCB fan, you would have been happy to have seen his back, but if you were a lover of cricket, then maybe not.

For Pietersen always evoked such emotions within you. Right from his test debut in 2005, he was perhaps the one player in that England batting line-up, who made you sit in front of the television set and watch him bat.

You perhaps wouldn't care less to watch an Alastair Cook dig his way to a stubborn innings, you might watch an Ian Bell bat, provided he was playing those silken cover drives. With Pietersen, you sat and watched no matter what. His batting gave you a thrill and has given us so many exhilarating moments over the years that when he fails, you feel sad.

When Brett Lee was steaming in during the Ashes test of 2005 at the Oval, Pietersen pulled and hooked him for sixes at twice the speed. He cover drove Glenn McGrath with elegance and smashed Shane Warne on both sides of the wicket. It was simply breathtaking to watch.

Over the next decade or so, he gave us many such moments. The double hundred in Adelaide in 2010. The 186 on a square turner in Mumbai against an Indian attack that had three spinners. The hundred in Colombo are some efforts that still linger in the minds of those who feel deprived of him, not in the Three Lions shirt.

But during the course of his career, he had a constant company in the form of injuries. Pietersen would be first to vouch that not a lot of parts are left in his body which are yet to suffer an injury.

The latest to join the group is the calf and on Saturday night, the right-hander took to his Instagram account to confirm that it had led to him missing the remainder of the 2016 Indian Premier League(IPL) season.

The IPL and Pietersen have had a strange relationship in recent times. He opted out of the 2015 campaign, since the new England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman Colin Graves gave him a hint that he could get a look-in in the summer and so he stayed back and perhaps became the first ever player to have been told,” Thanks but we don't need you,” after having made an unbeaten 355.

It wasn’t the sort of treatment you would give to any player, let alone to someone who was once the country’s highest run-getter and someone who won you the nation’s lone World crown in the 45 years that limited-overs cricket has existed.

You can safely assume that his international career is all but over and so, wherever little his fans can see him, it would only be in franchise cricket, where he has shown that he still has it in him.

Pietersen has given many a moment to cherish in his long career and he certainly doesn't deserve to end that by limping away from the field. He has done enough to finish with fans cheering him away from the cricketing turf. Now all he needs is for that calf of his to relent quickly and get him back to the pitch.