Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen has been quite busy on social media during the ongoing lockdown period due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
He is rather taking interviews of several cricketers on Instagram or is interacting with the fans on Twitter. This time around he opened up about a little bit about his much-talked about international career and picked his top three knocks in Test cricket.
Though his England career came to an end in an ugly way, Pietersen played some memorable knocks for his team. As far as his career is concerned, he represented England in 104 matches and went on to amass 8181 runs at an impeccable average of 47.3 with 23 centuries and 35 scores of more than 50.
Among his 23 tons, the 39-year-old’s century against India during the 2012-13 season in Mumbai Test is often discussed by many.
His 186-run knock in the game had turned not only the game but the series on its head.
Pietersen had counter-attacked India’s much famed spinners on a square turner and it led to England to winning the series by 2-1 despite losing the opening game.
Interestingly, the England international has rated this innings as the second best of his career.
Pietersen rates his 151 in Sri Lanka as the best knock.
With temperatures soaring into the forties and the tourists already one-down in the series, Pietersen played perhaps his most purely audacious knock since that life-changing day at The Oval.
In reply to Sri Lanka’s 275 in the first innings of the Colombo Test (P Sara Oval) in April 2012, England went on to post 460 runs on the board on the back of a fantastic knock from Pietersen. He scored 151 runs off just 165 balls.
He later explained that with the heat so oppressive, any thoughts of playing a conventional innings were inconceivable, and so he’d turned to all-out attack, launching six sixes and belting 16 fours in barely over three hours of breathless batsmanship. England won the match to square the series. While citing the reason for picking this innings as his best ever, Pietersen hilariously mentioned that he wasn’t confident of batting for more than an hour or two in the Sri Lanka heat.
“Often asked my best innings – THIS ONE! Only cos I thought there was NO WAY I could bat for longer than an hour or 2 at most in the heat in SL! Therefore – a Test swing fest!” he tweeted.
However, when asked about his 186-run knock against India at the Wankhede, Pietersen rated the innings as the second best while his 158-run knock at The Oval against Australia which had saved the Test match for England was rated the third best.
Out of the 23 Test centuries scored by Pietersen, England have ended up winning 11 matches and lost only one with the remaining 11 ending in draws. The only loss was to Australia at Adelaide in 2006 despite Pietersen scoring an epic 158 against the great Aussie trio of McGrath, Lee and Warne.
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