IPL can help KP work on poor Twenty20 skills
The IPL will be a good opportunity for England cricketers, Kevin Pietersen in particular, to improve their Twenty20 skills ahead of the World Twenty20 in June, writes Steve James in the Telegraph .
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
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Despite attracting the top dollar (1.55m of them, along with Flintoff) at the recent auction, he is not yet very good at Twenty20. In this format he has not yet found the ideal batting tempo. It has become a well-used, if perplexing to some, Twenty20 cliche that players have more time than they think. But they have; 120 balls is a long time. And a journey cannot often begin in the outside lane. Pietersen must learn this.
He is also to captain the Bangalore Royal Challengers, with a rather appetising confrontation coming a week tomorrow in Port Elizabeth against Chennai Super Kings, captained by his old rival from the winter, MS Dhoni, with Flintoff in his ranks. One must pray that, amongst such a galaxy of stars (he has the likes of Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher in his squad), Pietersen rediscovers a desire for leadership, so evidently missing in recent pronouncements. England need Pietersen to skipper their World Twenty20 campaign. If required, bended-knee entreaties must be made.
Nishi Narayanan is a staff writer at ESPNcricinfo