Kevin Pietersen, one of the heroes of England’s 2012-13 triumphant Test tour of India, has stressed on the need for batters to have a sound defence to achieve success during their forthcoming series.
Pietersen’s 186 in the second Test in Mumbai, is regarded as one of the best performances by a foreign batter in India.
“Getting runs is just going to be a fluke without a defence,” the 43-year-old told Mike Atherton in The Times, London.
“We used to do this drill all the time in India, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and me. Rooty is spectacular, as good as anyone. It’s about learning not to commit yourself on to the front foot; about waiting to pick the length of the ball, so you are not playing only with your hands. To do that, the drill is to hit any ball, wherever it pitches, through the
off side.
“If you don’t have a defence, you can’t bat, it’s pretty simple,” Pietersen said. “...I’d spend time in the nets just defending; it’s actually not negative to defend. The ability to defend gives you the confidence to be able to attack.
“Defend; play straight lines, don’t plant your front foot; wait for the ball; don’t play just with your hands. If you can do that and you have the wherewithal to be able to commit to a solid defence and trust it, then it allows you to loosen up.”
Pietersen also revealed how he played Ravichandran Ashwin doosra in the
Mumbai Test.
“I picked Ashwin’s ‘doosra’. He used to load the ball at the back of his run-up, and I think he still does that now. He never ran up with the ball in his hand as an off spinner and changed it late for the ‘doosra’; you can’t do that. He loaded it up early.
“I was 100 per cent confident when he was going to bowl it and you’d see how many times I hit him over the off side. I’d see the ‘doosra’ at the back of his mark and, because he had a stacked leg-side field because the ball was turning so much, I’d think ‘four or six’.
“It was one of the things I had, to be able pick a bowler at the end of his mark... Then I trusted what my eyes were telling me.”
