It is seldom that a player makes his debut and within a handful of matches acquires the reputation of being the best or perhaps the most destructive batsman in a good international side. Well, when one makes 454 runs in just 5 innings, inclusive of 3 deluxe centuries, averaging 151 against a formidable South African attack, coming on the back of a series where one averages 104 in three innings, it is not inconceivable. Kevin Pietersen was on the international scene with a big bang and distinct élan. His arrival also boosted cricket fever in England given his trendy, superstar image that the kids now find it ‘cool’ to play cricket.

There are two plausible suppositions why this South African-born lad opted to throw his lot in with the Poms. The first being that he was disenchanted with the quota system in South Africa and therefore got lesser chances while the other suggests that he never performed for any team in South Africa. He himself acknowledged the fact that the predicament where his association with Nottinghamshire depended on him being not qualified as an overseas player was ‘chaotic’ but decided that the 'guarantee of three years of high-quality cricket’ with Nottinghamshire was ‘a career opportunity too good to turn down’. Whatever the reason to play for England, there exist no two opinions when it comes to the ability, capability and genius of this flamboyant English middle-order batsman. Courtesy his British mother, Kevin qualified to play for England and made the most of this opportunity.

Like all big hitters, Pietersen is also a strong bottom handed player, but, he can also play with a ‘loose’ bottom hand keeping the good balls away, especially while facing world class spinners. He makes good use of his height and his ‘big stride’ helps the leg-before decisions to go in his favour. What is surprising though is his ability to time the ball with peerless precision. A short arm jab or a defensive push making the cricket ball glide to the longest boundaries in the world is commonplace when ‘KP’ is at the batting crease. He can also be fairly ruthless. He has mastered the famous Steve Waugh slog sweep, in fact Kevin hits it more elegantly. Strong pull shots, lofted cover drives, neat straight drives and bucket full of histrionics are all a part of a Kevin innings.
He posses an incredible ability to perform while the chips are down. Not surprisingly, today he is the most prized wicket in the English team.

His temperament to play the longer version was a question mark. He made his test debut against Australia at Lords in July 2005 and top scored for England in both the innings, becoming only the 4th Englishman to do so on debut. He played Shane Warne with supreme confidence and was never shy to take the attack to any Australian bowler. In the final Ashes test, he scored a mammoth 158 in the second innings to help England salvage a draw and clinch the series for the first time in 18 years. He also finished as the top scorer in the series scoring 473 runs at an average of 52.55 runs. His heroics over the year won him the ICC Emerging Player Of The Year Award as well as the ODI Player Of The Year Award (2005). He was also named as the Wisden Cricketer of the Year 2006.

Incredibly, unlike other exciting talents, Pietersen has already established himself as a leading batsman in world cricket. He has scored runs in South Africa, England, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and India - all possessing quality bowling attacks. He can do the unthinkable. We have seen the prodigal outrageous reverse-sweep that he hit off the ace spinner, Muttiah Muralitharan, for a six! Well, he may be ostentatious and cocky but when you have truckload of talent and the confidence to match it, who cares? Not many would want to bet against him, given his runs have been scored at an astounding average of 60.40.

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