KP saying “we’ll take positives from this”…
…or “we’ll learn from this” after both test matches and ODI’s over the next…well will it be few years or will it be shorter than that?
It’s bad enough with the “that’s who I am” after he’s done most of the hard work and then throws his wicket away with consequences for both the game and series. Funny when Geoff Miller during the press conference to crown Pietersen said that they were in a good position in this last test before chucking it away, yeah might have had a little to do with the man on your right.
Of course KP only heard a couple of individuals have a a bad word to say about that, unlike the rest of us who heard no one have a good word to say about it. I have a feeling he’ll need that brass neck and deaf ear over time.
Can he prove he’s a team man and do the best thing in a given situation for England not what is best for KP?
When I heard about the press conference being called before the team announcement like everyone else knew it could only really mean one thing that Vaughan was stepping down. At the time I wondered if that was, Nasser style, him gone for good as he hasn’t shown much appetite to go back to Yorkshire and play much. Understandable to some extent with all the pressures of the job and needing time off but when going through the bad trots of form he has had over the last few years taking a break hasn’t much helped.
One thing being of course that when he did go back he didn’t really flourish, a man who has treated some of the great bowlers on the international scene with contempt should destroy you’re average county attack, bit of a comfort zone, knew he didn’t have to excel then but now he has to regain his test place and get in on the next Ashes series, in his rightful place opening the batting, I suppose 2002/03 Down Under style would be a little too much to ask for.
All this has deflected the coaches role in what’s gone on recently, does he and the batting coach tell the team to go out there and swing at everything? If not the players aren’t listening to them so what’s the point. “It’s who I am and the way I play” – South Africans did that in the first game but then realised that’s how games are lost so decided to change and bat to win and guess what they did win.
As for Collingwood stepping down, of course he wasn’t pushed the fact they wanted one man to do both jobs and Collingwood was banned for the next four ODIs and KP did as much of the on field captaincy under his leadership as he did had nothing to do with him making his own decision to step down 🙄