Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen’s tweet on X has sparked quite a bit of debate. Earlier, Pietersen wrote that Test batting 20-25 years ago was “twice as hard back then” compared to the current times. The 45-year-old also named 10 of the bowlers from that era and questioned who are the current bowlers who could match them.
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Former England skipper Michael Vaughan slammed Pietersen for his comments. “I think he’s talking nonsense,” said Vaughan on Sony Sports Network. “I have looked at the last six or seven years closely. You look at the Indian seamers now, they are as good as they ever had. You look at the Australian attack, that trio that Australia had, it is as good as they have had.”
“Waqar [Younis], Shoaib [Akhtar], [Wasim] Akram, [Saqlain] Mushtaq, [Anil] Kumble, [Javagal] Srinath, Harbhajan [Singh], [Allan] Donald, [Shaun] Pollock, [Lance] Klusener, [Darren] Gough, [Glenn] McGrath, [Brett] Lee, [Shane] Warne, [Jason] Gillespie, [Shane] Bond, [Daniel] Vettori, [Chris] Cairns, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Murali[tharan], Curtley [Ambrose], Courtney [Walsh] 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?,” Pietersen wrote.
“You go to South Africa, Rabada and Jansen. You go to New Zealand, Boult, Southee. I’ve loved the last few years of Test match cricket because it has been competitive,” argued Vaughan. “I think this era of batting, I don’t think it has been any easier than any other era. I think there’s some wonderful bowlers around.”
“You still have to score runs. Irrespective of the bowling you are facing, you still have to go get the runs. Don’t take anything away from the current players,” expressed Vaughan. “Look at the way they have batted. They have batted with a lot more aggression than earlier times, maybe not during Kevin Pietersen’s time. I don’t take anything away from the runs that have been scored in recent times.”
