Former England captain Kevin Pietersen says he would be interested in joining the team’s coaching set-up and would look to alter their approach to Test cricket.
England’s 4-1 Ashes defeat in Australia triggered a January review by the England and Wales Cricket Board, putting scrutiny on coach Brendon McCullum’s aggressive “Bazball” tactics.
“I would absolutely look at it in the longest form of the game and try to help these guys understand that there is a way that you can play,” Pietersen, 45, told The Guardian.
“Tactically, you’ve got to understand the situation. I know I’ve got all the credentials. I know I do. I’ve worn every single T-shirt.”
The former Ashes and T20 World Cup winner said England needed a more measured approach in Tests.
“In the shortest form of the game, sure, play without fear, go out there, be brave, be reckless, be careless, be whatever you want. In Test match cricket, you cannot do that,” he said.
“I hit back at the stumps for a long time in my career. I didn’t run down the wicket against Australia’s fastest bowlers and try and slog them for six on the first ball. I knew my limitations.”
England, who were eliminated from the T20 World Cup on Thursday after a seven-wicket loss to India, next host New Zealand in a three-match Test series in June.
• Meanwhile, in New Zealand, Central Stags fast bowler Brett Randell became the first player to take five wickets in five balls in first-class cricket on Sunday, producing a remarkable burst on the second day of the Plunket Shield match against Northern Districts in Napier.
The 30-year-old right-armer also became the first bowler to claim six wickets in eight deliveries and finished with figures of 7-25 from 11 overs. His spell skittled Northern Districts for 82 in reply to Central Districts’ 373.
“I am pretty blown away. The high was pretty crazy; it was like a pinch-me moment,” Randell said.
“I was trying to stay level-headed and keep putting the ball in the same area and then after the actual hat-trick, just the same things – trying to put the ball in the same area.
“It gets drummed into us a lot that we don’t want to go searching for wickets, so I was trying to just keep bowling the same ball and our ‘Plan A’ that we had talked about, and it came off.”
Randell’s feat is just the eighth hat-trick for the Stags in 75 years of Plunket Shield cricket. — Reuters
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