Kevin Pietersen lauds Eoin Morgan, Zak Crawley, and Jonny Bairstow
MUMBAI: Kevin Pietersen has attributed white-ball captain of England, Eoin Morgan, for England's 3-0 victory over New Zealand. He said it was Eoin Morgan who brought a culture shift to English cricket in the year 2015, which, seven years later, is already showing results.
He further said that a culture shift like that which handed England a 3-0 victory was worth it. In addition to this, he mentioned Brendon McCullum, and he said from all the years that he had known Brendon, he knew how Brendon intended to bring a positive attitude to the English team.
Going further, he also lauded England's Cricket Board(ECB) for the inclusion of 24 years old lad Zak Crawley in the test match against India. Brendon McCullum's updated management has constantly backed Zak Crawley. In fact, according to him, it would have been a massive blunder if Zak Crawley hadn't been included despite his failure against New Zealand.
It's important to note that Zak scored merely 87 runs in 6 innings on an average of 14.5. Even Jonny Bairstow, who's known for his fearless shots in shorter formats of the game, hasn't missed out on Kevin Pietersen's compliments. He said it's a treat to his eyes to see Jonny play, and the inclusion of Jonny in the test team is a bonus because Jonny is always ready to score rapidly in test matches, and Brendon's new management backs him.
Kevin has given credit to IPL for Jonny's high performance because he got accustomed to massive crowds and faced nearly all kinds of bowlers. However, after closely monitoring the 1st innings of the 5th test match of India vs England, it seems like Kevin wasn't wrong about Jonny's performance at all. Jonny scored 106 runs in merely 140 balls at a phenomenal average of 75.71; thus, keeping that in mind, we can say Jonny is having his time of life in 2022.
Furthermore, Kevin said that after the English team handed over a 3-0 defeat to New Zealand, he was shocked how New Zealand was able to lift the world test championship trophy because they certainly didn't deserve it.
He also highlighted the efforts of Eoin Morgan on how he has transformed the English cricket team and brought out the best in the players. With a winning culture, young talent backing, etc. overall, Eoin Morgan should be widely appreciated for his devotion and honesty towards English cricket. Kevin thinks Eoin always believed in his players, and that's what a great leader does. But it's sad to see him being replaced by another great batsman, Jos Butler.
