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I would love to play for England again: Pietersen
London: Banished England cricketer Kevin Pietersen on Monday hailed comments from Colin Graves who will succeed as the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman in May, saying he would love to play for England again.
Graves insisted that there was a way back for Pietersen in the England team if the former skipper would play county cricket.
“The first thing he has to do if he wants to get back is start playing county cricket. The selectors and the coaches are not going to pick him if he’s not playing, it’s as simple as that. I’ll leave it at that,” Graves had told earlier.
Speaking on the comments, Pietersen whose international career came to an end last February as the ECB sought to rebuild England’s “team ethic” said: “Let’s just be clear: I’d love to play for England again.”
“If it is genuine, which I’m sure it is … goodness, I would love to be given that opportunity again. I will need to go away and make some decisions, I need to speak to a few people … I’ll have to go away now and see where my future lies, but this is really, really encouraging,” Pietersen was quoted as saying by stuff.co.nz.
The prolific right-handed batsman has scored 13,797 runs in England colours. He said he was quite surprised with Graves’s words, especially at a time when he thought his England career was cut short and taken away from him.
“The previous chat (with ECB officials) was clearly that I had been banned from playing for England and that I’d never play again, which for me was incredibly sad,” the 34-year-old said.
I do feel that my England career was cut short and taken away from me. It’s come as a pleasant surprise but one that I’ll need to think through.”
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Sunil Gavaskar gives his opinion of GT allrounder Rahul Tewatia
The left-handed batsman from Haryana is garnering praise from all quarters for the way he’s finishing games regularly in the most exciting IPL season.
Gavaskar reckons Tewatia’s whirlwind knock in Sharjah (in IPL 2020) where he smashed West Indies pacer Sheldon Cottrell for five sixes in an over, gave him the confidence that he belongs to the big stage.
Speaking on Cricket Live on Star Sports, Gavaskar said, “That assault on Sheldon Cottrell in Sharjah gave him the belief to do the impossible and the confidence that he belongs here. We saw the impossible (he did with the bat) the other day as well. There’s no twitching or touching the pads (which shows a batter’s nervousness) when he bats in the death overs. He just waits for the ball to be delivered and plays his shots. He’s got all the shots in the book, but most importantly his temperament to stay cool in a crisis is brilliant.”
Gavaskar has also nicknamed the 28-year-old cricketer the ‘ice-man’ and lauded Tewatia’s ability to remain unruffled during the tense moments.