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Pietersen Returns
Kevin Pietersen has once such scar. The man himself will tell you that it can be found on his back between his shoulder blades, but in truth it lies across his heart, a constant reminder of the darkest days of his cricketing career.
In 2008, Pietersen led England to a 5-0 ODI series defeat against India, in India. The series was a seven game affair, curtailed not by weather but a different kind of more menacing storm – the ruthlessly coordinated Mumbai hotel terrorist attacks that killed around 164 people and injured over 300.
Pietersen was vocal in his desire to press on with the tour amidst widespread calls to cancel it. England returned to India to play the two match test series, scraping a 1-1 draw whilst minds were rightly elsewhere.
England returned home world weary and beaten in more ways than one. A few months down the line and Pietersen was relieved of his duties, told he must leave his post after then England coach Peter Moores had been given the heave ho. Pietersen was captain for just three tests and ten ODI matches.
Having gone public about his falling out with Moores, the South African born batsmen’s stock had never been lower.
Here was the golden boy, the dazzling image of a modern English cricketer riding at the crest of the wave on his haunches, hounded by those in the game who believe he had smoked Moores out in order to make room for his own ego. Some scars certainly run deeper than others.
Now he finds himself preparing to tour India once more for the first time since his chastening experience with his adopted country.
Pietersen’s affinity with his Indian fans is apparent; the batsman even took to his Twitter page to speak Hindi ahead of his arrival in the country, but he could be forgiven for feeling a sense of dread as he boards the plane bound for India next month.
Most assumed he wouldn’t be anywhere near that plane, that he had been rested for the summer, but now he has been called upon by England, he must spring into action.
He has the chance to banish the demons that haunt him; his ODI record in India is excellent, he averages well over 50, and even averaged over 56 on that ill-fated tour in 2008.
The Surrey batsman is well and truly over his dip in form that dogged him over the past eighteen months leading up to the Indian series, and his return will be a boost for and England side that were run a little ragged during the ODI series and unravelled in the final game of the summer.
Now he can be the returning hero, the man who kept England afloat and scored the runs that take them to victory. What better way than to erase the scars of the past that cast him as a villain.
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