Team’s lack of IPL experience could hamper England- Kevin Pietersen

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  • Experience counts: KP feels it’s important to play in IPL to gain T20 prowess.

    Kevin Pietersen is excited by England’s young T20 stars but feels their lack of experience in sub-continent conditions could make it a big ask to win next year’s competition in India.

    England cruised to a comprehensive 3-0 whitewash over Pakistan in the UAE, with many of the squad performing well, prompting captain Eoin Morgan to reveal that he does not know what his best team is ahead of next year’s tournament.

    But Pietersen believes the big concern for England is that their players have rarely tasted the bright lights of the Indian Premier League, which he feels is an essential grounding to short-form action.

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    “I’d feel a lot more confident about England’s chances if five or six of their players had been regular candidates in the IPL because they would have had a lot more experience and hit more sixes,” Pietersen, who scored 32 centuries across all formats for England between 2004 and 2014, told Sport360 exclusively during his Foundation’s Sprite 24-7 project event in Sharjah.

    “But that’s not to say they’re not going to come out and do really well, I really hope they do. I love the youngsters in that side. I love the energy with Morgan leading the team, Jos Buttler taking over for a game as captain, Jason Roy at the top of the innings and Joe Root’s a little superstar.

    “Chris Jordan bowled a great Super Over against Pakistan – that was proper, proper bowling in a high-pressured environment, facing Shahid Afridi and Umar Akmal, two clean hitters. Bowling Yorkers and then following the batsman, he went for just three runs. It excites me, this side really excites me.”

    He added: “The conditions in India are totally different. England have never really done well in the sub-continent and major events, apart from in individual patches, like beating India in the 2012 Test series. I would love the England team to get a lot more players playing T20 cricket.”

    England have very little time to regroup before arriving in South Africa on December 11 for the start of a five-match Test series against the world’s number one-ranked side. The last time England visited that part of the world was way back in 2009-10, with the teams battling to a 1-1 draw.

    Pietersen knows all too well about the conditions the tourists will face and believes South Africa will be fired up after losing their nine-year unbeaten streak of not losing a Test series away from home, against India.

    “The India Tests have got nothing to do with how South Africa are going to perform in South Africa.

    “The South Africans are going to need some of their batters to get home soon and get some runs under their belt, get some confidence.

    “When you don’t score runs your confidence wanes and time in the middle for their big players like AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis is going to be really important for them to perform well.”

    Pietersen also thinks Ian Bell still has a future in Test cricket despite being dropped from the tour while he was pleased to see Buttler put the disappointment of not being selected in the final Test match of the recent series against Pakistan behind him and hit a big ton during the subsequent ODIs.

    “There’s certain players you just don’t mess around with, there’s certain players you look after. [Buttler’s] a match-winner and he won that game when he came back and played. He got a 100 off 45 balls, it’s special.”

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