Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen.
Credit: Reuters File Photo
New Delhi: England great Kevin Pietersen has stirred a fresh debate by claiming that batting in the current era is "way easier" than it was 20-25 years ago, suggesting a decline in the quality of bowling across Test-playing nations.
Pietersen’s comments on his social media handle came a day after fellow England batter Joe Root overtook Australia great Ricky Ponting to climb to second place in the all-time list of Test run scorers.
"Don’t shout at me but batting these days is way easier than 20/25 years ago! Probably twice as hard back then!,” Pietersen wrote on X on Saturday.
Pietersen, who played 104 Tests, 136 ODIs and 37 T20Is for England between 2005 and 2013, has been as flamboyant with his views as he was in the middle with the bat.
The former right-handed batter, who made 8,181 runs at 47.28 with 23 tons and 35 fifties in Test cricket, said batting was “twice as hard back then”.
Pietersen named a host of bowlers from the past eras and challenged his readers to name 10 contemporary bowlers who can be compared with them.
"Waqar, Shoaib, Akram, Mushtaq, Kumble, Srinath, Harbhajan, Donald, Pollock, Klusener, Gough, McGrath, Lee, Warne, Gillespie, Bond, Vettori, Cairns, Vaas, Murali, Curtley, Courtney and the list could go on and on...”
“I’ve named 22 above. Please name me 10 modern day bowlers that can compare to the names above?,” he added.
Root, who capitalised on a wayward Indian bowling attack to smash 150 on Day Three of the Manchester Test, is now behind only Sachin Tendulkar’s towering mark of 15,921 runs.