A batting giant called Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen is on a roll. He has been, ever since he made his international debut more than two-and-a-half years back. The second season is usually considered to be the toughest for an international batsman: opposing teams build up a database on his strengths and weaknesses, allowing bowlers to come back armed with plenty of strategies to ensure that the honeymoon period gives way more uncomfortable and harsher truths. With Pietersen, however, the reverse has been true: after averaging 44.93 in eight Tests in 2005, he scored 53.72 per innings in 14 Tests in 2006, while 2007 has been a veritable bounty so far - two hundreds, including a double, and an average of 86.20 in three Tests. (Click here for Pietersen's career summary in Tests.)

Pietersen's 226 against a friendly West Indian attack at Headingley led England to a thumping victory by an innings, and lifted his aggregate to a staggering 2448 runs after 25 Tests - that's very nearly 100 runs per Test. That's more runs than Viv Richards, Everton Weekes, and Neil Harvey had managed at a similar stage in their career. In fact, the only batsman to have scored more runs after 25 matches answers to the name Don Bradman, who had a whopping tally of 3194.

Pietersen has also made it a habit of making it to the three-figure mark with monotonous regularity - his double-hundred at Headingley was his eighth in 25 Tests, and his longest stretch without a century is just nine innings. In fact, only six batsmen - Bradman, Harvey, Arthur Morris, Denis Compton, Weekes and Sunil Gavaskar - have scored more than eight after 25 matches (Andrew Strauss, Richards and Wally Hammond had exactly eight as well).

Pietersen has been helped by the fact that he has batted twice in almost every Test - the Headingley match is only the third in which he batted just once. In terms of averages Pietersen's 54.40 has been bettered by 22 batsmen after 25 matches; among batsmen who debuted after 1985, though, Pietersen is among the best - only five batsmen have had better stats at a similar stage their careers. Pietersen will have to beware, though, that he doesn't slide the way the leader of the pack did: Jimmy Adams had a phenomenal start to his Test career, with five hundreds and an average of more than 61 after 25 games. In his next 29 Tests, though, the average slumped to 26.95, and he finished with a career average of just 41.26, a drop of more than 20 runs from his 25-Test figure.

It seems highly unlikely, though, that Pietersen will go the Adams way, simply because of his sheer class and the panache with which he has handled some of the best bowlers in world cricket. Shane Warne finished a distinct second-best in their battles in 2005, while Muttiah Muralitharan went at more than five an over, though he dismissed Pietersen four times. Glenn McGrath is the only one who bowled a fair number of deliveries at Pietersen and averaged less than 30 runs per dismissal.

Pietersen has already proved himself against the might of the Australians, averaging 53.50 against them in ten Tests, and while he hasn't had quite as much success against India and Pakistan, that's mostly because of his lack of experience in the subcontinent. Given his record against the leading spinners, it isn't difficult to imagine that he'll conquer those conditions as well. With Kevin Pietersen, the real thing has been every bit as good - or even better - than the hype.