Why England should bring back Kevin Pietersen for the World T20
The Kevin Pietersen and ECB saga has been a point of discussion in the cricketing world for the last few years. A world-class player with a volatile temperament and a cricket board that is not willing to face his tantrums and give him a longer rope when he wasn’t at his best, has made the relationship between the two quite tense.
Pietersen has been one of England's best batsman across all formats and an ending like this to his international career looks sad. If England provide Pietersen a last hurrah by picking him for the T20 World Cup, which he quite rightly deserves on his current form, then perhaps the climax might not be so sad after all.
So here are four reasons why England should pick Kevin Pietersen for the upcoming T20 World Cup in India.
Horses for courses seems legit in T20s
To be honest, the reasoning of ECB that younger generation should be given chances ahead of Pietersen seems valid in the tests and even ODIs because the next World Cup is four years away and a long term investment seems legit. But the same reasoning seems a little flawed in tT20s because the next T20 World Cup is in 2016 and the players in form should be given a go in the side.
Horses for courses looks a good strategy in the T20s because T20 World Cup is held in every 2 years and even if you have to play an ageing player to win the World Cup, the deal seems profitable. If England can win their second T20 World Cup with contributions from Pietersen’s bat, they would not regret their decision.
Kevin Pietersen is a quality T20 player
Though England now have many flamboyant batsmen, Pietersen was arguably one of the finest English batsmen in the last decade. Pietersen was capable of winning a game on his own and his belligerent batting will be an asset in the English T20 side.
Also Pietersen has recently been in electrifying form in the shortest format as he has scored heaps of runs in the Ram Slam tournament in South Africa this year. Although he played only five matches, he hit two fifties and two centuries in those games and is still the tournament’s top run-getter despite playing fewer matches than everyone else.
Not only that, but his record for England in T20s was arguably one of the best as well. He was only recently overtaken by Eoin Morgan as the country’s leading run-scorer in the format, but he still has the best average and strike rate of any English batsmen who has played at least a dozen T20 matches. So it will be harsh to still ignore Pietersen's name from the T20 side.