KP emerges from the depths of poor form
England’s best batsman silenced some of his critics and relieved himself of much personal stress by making 99 on day one of the 1st Test between Bangladesh and England in Chittagong. His performance in the first innings was a triumph for his professionalism and dedication to excellence. Few players work harder at their game than England’s talismanic batsman.
Frustrated by his poor form over the past twelve months, and a recurring weakness against slow left arm spinners, he consulted former England Coach Duncan Fletcher and one of India’s legendary batsmen Rahul Dravid (who is a teammate of Pietersen’s at IPL franchise, Bangalore Royal Challengers) as well as England Team Director Andy Flower. Flower was a world-class player of spin himself before his retirement as a cricketer to become part of England’s coaching team in 2006.
Experiencing difficulty against left-arm spinners is not exclusive to the South African born England batsman. Even the game’s greatest ever batsman, Sir Donald Bradman, had his travails against this variety of bowling, especially in opposition to the Yorkshireman, Hedley Verity. Verity dismissed Bradman 10 times – eight times in 16 meetings, with the feat of dismissing him twice in a match on two occasions, more than any other English bowler.
Every bowler presents their own individual challenges, but the best batsmen find a way to counter their threat, and evolve over the duration of their playing career.
Pietersen has worked assiduously in the nets over the past week to iron out faults and build different ways of scoring against the turning ball. Full credit to him for the returns his professionalism merits. From a coaching perspective, it is interesting to note how the best players can adapt to new information quickly, and integrate changes into their performance in a short time-frame, due to their high level of body and spatial awareness.
In trying to eradicate his weakness against slow left arm spinners, he changed his tactical strategy and looked to play more often with the spin of the ball. Simplistically, he aimed more at mid off to extra cover rather than his previous method of being seduced by the big gaps between fielders on the onside which causes him to play across the line of the ball too often for comfort. When the ball turns away from him, his onside tendency means that he ends up using the bat like a ‘curtain rail’, as opposed to a pendulum, dropping down into, and then, through the line of the turning ball.
The left-arm spinner’s angle from round the wicket accentuates Pietersen’s historical weakness of favouring the onside, as the ball angles in to the right hander and then turns away from the batsman from leg to off stump. This causes the batsman to be drawn into playing against the spin of the ball if he isn’t watchful, and disciplined, in his judgment of shot selection, and, precise in his execution of the batting stroke.
During the latter stages of my playing career, I was fortunate to play on several occasions against one of India’s best ever batsmen, Rahul Dravid. In those games (Leicestershire v Kent), I also had the privilege of keeping to his Indian team-mate and the leg-spinning legend, Anil Kumble. I was fascinated to see how Rahul moved his starting position (or batting guard as it is known) regularly. The purpose was to counter-act the angles Anil was trying to open up when he came coming round the wicket by batting on, or outside the line of leg stump. Alternatively, when Anil bowled over the wicket, Rahul moved his starting position to bat on a middle stump guard, in order to help him play ‘into’ the spin of the ball more easily.
Despite being dismissed twice by slow left arm spinners in 1st Test, I believe his game has developed in the past week and that some opposing teams may pay heavily in the coming weeks and months as he seeks to make up for lost time in the middle.
Pietersen will be relieved to have broken his pattern of continuous low scores and is likely to be pleased that some of his best attacking shots (such as the lofted straight drive) have returned to his play. Having the confidence to execute such strokes requires a level of mental courage and even more so, when a player is in the middle of a slump.
When batsmen are experiencing barren returns, there is often a myriad of well-meaning advice floating around and it can be very difficult to ignore, whatever a player may say publicly. With rolling news channels, and media air-time given over to in-depth, pre and post-match analysis, the scrutiny can become too intrusive for some players seeking to gain the necessary mental clarity required to produce top performance. The pressure grows and some individuals ‘blow up’ and never re-discover their previous form or personal equilibrium.
In the last 12 months he played in 8 Tests and made only 379 runs at an average of 28.90, and in 11 ODI’s (One Day Internationals), making only 173 at an average of 17.30.
In 2008 he hit five Test centuries; he has only managed one since, in the West Indies. His form has been even worse in ODI’s, where (in the same period) he has a best score of 48 in 10 innings. His last four scores in the Tests in South Africa were: 0, 6 (Wanderers Test), 7 and 12 (Newlands Test). His best score in the three ODI’s in Bangladesh was: 22. His scores in the three-day match completed just before the Test against Bangladesh ‘A’ were: 2 and 20.
How does a player, once so dominant, become stuck in a trough of low scores?
Cricket’s rich history shows us that even the great batsmen have gone through very lean periods of form. Australian Mark Waugh once made four ducks in a row versus Sri Lanka while legendary Aussie batsman Greg Chappell made seven ducks in 15 international innings in 1981-2, including four in a row against Pakistan and golden ducks in the Melbourne and Sydney Tests.
‘The Little Master’, Sachin Tendulkar, has also experienced difficult times too, in his otherwise prolific career. In Australia in 2003-4 when he made 0 in the 1st Test at Brisbane, 1 and 37 in the next Test at Adelaide and a golden (first-ball) duck on the MCG in the 3rd Test, a total of 38 runs at 9.50. I was privileged to witness his 248 not out at the Sydney Cricket Ground in the 4th Test (co-incidentally the final one of Steve Waugh’s iconic Test career) when Sachin steadfastly refused to drive through the offside. Throughout his innings, he avoided the potential error of ‘nicking off’ outside off stump – a remarkable innings of self-control and simple, but clever strategy.
The inner struggle that a cricketer experiences is largely due to the amount of time involved with playing the game and the periods of waiting involved, whether it be between balls, overs, sessions, innings, days, matches, tours or seasons. Maintaining an inner peace and a relative calmness, while still being able to commit the necessary passion at critical periods, requires significant emotional intelligence.
What happens in a batsman’s mind during such inexplicable periods of poor form?
Self-doubt can grow so quickly in some players on the back of several dismissals for low scores that it consumes them. Alternatively, a level of self-denial can kick in with some players when poor form takes its hold. They can dis-regard the reality of what has unfolded over a period of time, believing that by not entertaining the reality, they are being ‘positive’ and refusing to give in to poor form. This kind of denial can be a dangerous mindset, as important pieces of information can get ignored when assessing one’s game during such turbulent times.
So how does a player emerge from such a situation, and break the pattern of consistently low scores?
Having played as a professional cricketer in England and South Africa over a twenty year period (1983- 2003) and simultaneously coached players (up to and including first-class cricketers), I have developed a great empathy for the dark periods any cricketer can go through. When the cricketing gods refuse to smile on a player, it is a horrible, soul-searching time. Even the best of cricketers can experience the most excruciating mental torment that consistently poor form imposes on a player.
Maybe the experience is worse for the very best players? I suggest this because it is so rare for them to experience anything other than occasional bouts of poor form. Ordinarily, they can resume normal service by rattling off centuries like a good salesman can reel off his sales ‘patter’, so soon after a couple of low scores. However, slumps offer a different puzzle to solve. Good players don’t become average players just because of an extended run of poor form. The old saying ‘form is temporary, class is permanent’ holds some water in my opinion.
With 16 Test hundreds at an average of a shade under 50, Kevin Pietersen has proved himself to be one of the best amongst modern players. Performing consistently well against the best, over time, is fundamental if one is to be considered as ‘top class’ at the game.
Right from the beginning of his international career, when his three centuries (all scored at quicker than a run a ball) in his first ODI Series against South Africa (2005) revealed his talent, Pietersen has dictated the play to his opposition. His two fifties on Test debut (v Australia at Lord’s) included hitting England’s nemesis and fast-bowling legend, Glenn McGrath, for six into the famous Lord’s pavilion, clearly illustrating his desire to assert himself on his opponent. His 158 in the 5th Test at The Oval to secure the draw which enabled England to regain the Ashes after 16 years of hurt against the world’s best team was an inspirational innings, punctuated by strokes possessed of breathtaking brilliance. Pietersen is a class batsman who can play match-changing innings. I believe he deserves to be supported more, partly because he is the type of player who gets the audience on the edge of their seats in anticipation of his audacity and largely because his star quality enriches any match he participates in. Cricket needs entertainers if it is going to flourish and spread its wings.
Maybe Pietersen’s difficulties have been down to emotional issues rather than being induced by any technical shortcomings? Emotion can be a powerful driver towards producing new levels of excellence in performance. Alternatively, it can debilitate a player’s energy and be disruptive to attaining the all-important focused concentration needed in competition.
He has undergone a very challenging 18 months which has incorporated some career highs and some devastating blows. Having inherited the captaincy after Michael Vaughan’s tearful resignation following the series defeat to South Africa, Pietersen led from the front with a century in his first Test as captain as England won in a dead ‘rubber’ at The Oval. He followed this by inspiring a trouncing of South Africa in the ODI Series.
India was his next destination, and from the moment the bombs went off at The Taj Hotel in Mumbai, Pietersen’s reign as captain became beset with increasing difficulty. The first challenge was to persuade players to return to a security patrolled cricket tour to India. The next challenge was opposing Sachin Tendulkar at his peak, which co-incided with a 2-0 Test defeat after a poor ODI Series resulted in a 5-0 loss.
The post-tour fall-out over the festive period between captain Pietersen, coach Peter Moores and employer ECB, led to the unprecedented removal of captain and coach simultaneously. Suddenly, England’s star player became a man adrift.
The West Indies Tour which followed immediately after his removal as Captain became a totally different proposition than he could ever have envisaged only weeks beforehand. Despite a century in his first innings on tour, his touring experience must have been confusing and challenging, because Andrew Strauss was now running a ship Pietersen himself believed should still be his to skipper. For Pietersen, he was in a state of limbo, wanting to be a good team man and support new Captain Strauss, whilst understandably harbouring some resentment towards his employer and possibly some players who he may have felt were complicit in his downfall.
Having a deposed Captain in the ranks can be fraught with difficulty for the new Captain and the players who have been used to responding to someone else’s lead. Australia has a ruthless attitude to past Captains – they don’t feature as a player in future teams. The message is clear – once you are no longer Captain, your international playing career is over. Very rarely do Australia appoint young captains – the tendency is to allow a player to cement his role in the team in the first half of his career before burdening him with wider responsibilities.
Pietersen’s summer of 2009 in England was blighted by further problems beyond his control after an unsuccessful (from a playing but not financial perspective) dalliance with the IPL. His achilles injury ended his season after England’s triumphant performance at Lord’s in the 2nd Ashes Test and England went on to win The Ashes without him. I imagine this was a bitter-sweet experience – suddenly the team could experience glory without their ‘star’ performer, and the spotlight was turned on to Andrew Strauss and other players. Pietersen wouldn’t be human if some part of him wished it was him leading the team to Ashes glory. Instead, Andrew Strauss was in charge of a set of circumstances including a change in coaching personnel, and recognition of his leadership in regaining the Ashes, that his predecessor craved.
My sense is that Pietersen is in need of greater ‘TLC’ from all of the people connected to his performance, whether they be players, coaches, media, crowd etc. He seems to feed off the recognition of others despite some of his behaviour and comments in the past, making it less likely that some people will go out of their way to provide it. I found it fascinating that when he became England Captain, he bestowed so much ‘love’ on his fellow players which suggests he believes that is the way to inspire top performance in others. Inadvertently, it probably reveals more about himself and the manner he would most like to be treated by others.
With a relatively new marriage to his devoted partner Jessica, coupled with the prospect of impending fatherhood adding to his state of domestic bliss, some people have begun to question if his professional desire has become blunted. With significant commercial gains from an IPL contract and some major personal sponsorships, many of Pietersen’s career ambitions may have been satisfied. If, and when, a sportsman reaches this stage of life it can be difficult to commit the same intensity to one’s playing career that was expended on the way up. The old saying ‘train like a number two to stay number one’ makes great sense to any player wanting to continue to break boundaries and expand their playing horizons. Desire fuels the daily practice and training commitment.
I believe the major professional challenge for Pietersen, is to develop his game to a new level where he can be considered as one of the greats of the game by making consistently high scores and subsequently big volumes of runs in successive calendar years. If he is to become regarded amongst the best batsmen (not just amongst those in his own playing era) he will need to surpass the performance levels of the best players in history. I think he has it in him to challenge his contemporaries to be amongst the best players in the world currently. Time will tell if he can match Sachin Tendulkar or Ricky Ponting’s desire to become an all-time great.
For this to happen, I believe he will benefit from batting at number three in the order and challenging himself to see if he can take his game to a new level by negotiating the best bowlers when they, and the pitch, are at their most fresh. Negotiating the hard, new(ish) ball which offers the bowlers greater exploitation of any advantages available to them, will test his game considerably more than batting at number four or five in the order, which has been his habitation to date.
Despite averaging over 50, he needs to average over 60 to be amongst the greats of the game. In the modern era, most players batting averages are roughly 10 points higher. Better bats, flat pitches plus an inordinate volume of cricket has negated the impact of bowlers and subsequently the balance of bat versus ball is out of kilter.
Rich pickings are on offer for the very best. Can Kevin Pietersen refine his game, produce a new level of batsmanship, and consequently write himself into the history books as a truly great player over time?
