Brutal Assessment of Pieterson on the Pace Attack of the England Cricket Team in the Opener of Ashes
The ongoing Ashes series in Edgbaston has mostly been about the brave decision of captain Ben Stokes, as he created quite a buzz among fans and ex-cricketers after his bold move to declare England's first innings at 393/8. Not only the former cricketers but also coach of Team England, Gareth Southgate, were impressed with Stoke's fearless approach.
Despite the heavy lifting by the pacers, former all-rounder Kevin Pietersen feels the current set of pacers are something "not to be feared". He compared the current set with former stars Mitchell Johnson and Shoaib Akhtar, whom he believes had more fire in terms of pace.
The former all-rounder made the observation while discussing the problem of Travis Head in dealing with the short deliveries, asking the swashbuckling batsman to be more aggressive.
Kevin said, "There's a reason why the bowlers are targeted in there (short deliveries) because we do feel, well, everybody feels he (Travis Head) has an issue. And I don't mean to be disrespectful at all to the single bowling lineup, but they're not to be feared. And I'll say that from a pace-wise perspective, where you've got guys bowling at 80 miles an hour or 83 miles an hour. You don't have Mitchell Johnson running in at 95, Shoaib Akhtar, or even Woody (Mark Wood). Woody will run in, and he will test you.
He also said, "So you need to have your wits about you when it comes to that instinctive way of playing. Whereas against Stuart Broad at 82-83 and Ollie Robinson at 80-82. I'm sorry that the way that he played it wasn't as good as he should have been playing it, and absolutely no way. So it's a problem, and when you get targeted with a short ball, it rocks your foundations as a batter."