In the Ashes 2005 series, former England batter Kevin Pietersen made his Test debut against Australia. He was known for his exceptional performance against the Australian team. However, before the Ashes 2010-11 series in Australia, he was going through a slump in form. Despite this, former Australian pacer Brett Lee advised the Aussie bowlers not to provoke Pietersen during the series.
Pietersen’s poor form was not limited to red-ball cricket, as he had already been dropped from the ODI and T20I sides. Even the then Australian captain Ricky Ponting questioned Pietersen’s selection. In the ten Tests leading up to the Ashes, Pietersen only managed to score 306 runs with the help of three half-centuries.
Former pacer Mitchell Johnson even warned Pietersen that he would be targeted with several bouncers during the series. The Australians were well aware of Pietersen’s threat and tried everything they could to disturb the already out-of-form batter.
In an interview with The Guardian, Lee stated that Pietersen was the type of batter who should be left alone. He believed that provoking him could backfire for the Australians in the series. Lee supported the English batter to bounce back, and he was proven right. He refused to consider Pietersen a weakness for England.
“I would always back Kevin Pietersen to come out and do well.”
“There are guys you can stir up and get stuck into and there are others you leave alone. He takes it personally and it fires him up, and he’ll want to score a big hundred.”
England managed to dominate Australia in the series, leading to Ponting’s final journey as the Australian Test captain. The Ashes series in Australia has historically been one-sided in favor of the home team, but this time the tides turned. Lee believed that only match-winners could perform well in Australia, and Pietersen was certainly one of them.
Kevin Pietersen’s Performance in Ashes 2010-11
Pietersen may not have been at his best in the Ashes 2010-11 series, but his overall numbers were quite decent. He scored 360 runs in six innings with an average of 60.00, including one century and one half-century. Pietersen finished as the fifth-highest run-scorer of the series.
It is worth noting that he played a remarkable innings of 227 runs at the Adelaide Oval, which means he only scored 133 runs in the remaining five innings. Pietersen managed to secure his place in the team and went on to score another double century in 2011 against India at Lord’s.
