Kevin Pietersen is known for creating controversies. As a player, there was never a dearth of stories about him and even after retirement, the former English Test cricketer hasn't faded away from the scene. In his latest avatar as an analyst and commentator, KP has been in India working as an expert for the official broadcasters Star Sports.
Interestingly, while he presents meaningful and insightful analysis on TV, on Twitter, the former England captain continues to try and provoke his followers. His standard tactic has been to make outlandish predictions about the success of England. These predictions, don't seem to be serious and as expected, don't come true. However, Pietersen has been serious about one thing – calling England the favourites in this tournament and backing them to lift the trophy. However, the results that have been produced by the Three Lions is starting to worry him and he expressed some deep concerns after the capitulation of the side against Sri Lanka.
In a tweet issued on June 22, after England's shock defeat to Sri Lanka, Pietersen had this to say on the social media platform: "Listen, @englandcricket, we've had our ups and downs. After putting all my eggs in your basket for this year's CWC, I'm begging you to NOT F this tournament up. My Twitter feed has been chaotic since last night! SWING HARD! NO BLOCKING!"
This is what concerned me yesterday.
— Kevin Pietersen? (@KP24) June 26, 2019
I want to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he was showing his stumps cos Starc attacks them.
I may be wrong though?! Or I may be right?!
Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/d643E92YNZ
But when England started to struggle in their run chase against Australia, he put out an even more provocative tweet. KP suggested that the captain of England's team – Eoin Morgan – looked scared while facing Mitchell Starc. "Oh no, Eoin Morgan looked scared! That is a horror sign!" the retired cricketer tweeted.
He then put out a subsequent message elaborating his point. "The England captain stepping to square leg when Starc bowled his first delivery to him made me think England could have a little problem over the next week or so. I hope not, but I've not seen a captain show such a weakness for a while...."
The South Africa-born former cricketer also shared a video clip to drive home his point. All this was brought to the notice of Morgan during the post-match press conference and he was asked for a reaction. The Engllish captain merely responded with "Really. Excellent." When asked the question again, he continued to not get involved with it too much.
Clearly, Pietersen is worried, and for good reason. He may face some backlash in England for putting down the England captain and his old disputes with the team may be mentioned as the motivation. But KP is not someone lacking cricketing intelligence. His analysis is usually quite good. Perhaps he has noticed something very important.
