“Australia Started Plan B…”: Kevin Pietersen Differentiates Between Pat Cummins and Ben Stokes’ Captaincy In Birmingham Test

Former batter Kevin Pietersen has differentiated between Australia captain Pat Cummins and England captain Ben Stokes‘ captaincy skills thus far in the first Ashes 2023 Test match. Part of Sky Sports’ commentary team for the series, Pietersen was speaking alongside former Australia captain Ricky Ponting as the duo mostly criticized Cummins and his ultra defensive tactics on the first day of an Ashes series.

Pietersen, who defined Stokes’ leadership as “very good captaincy”, reckoned that Cummins made things easy for the home team yesterday. For those who missed the action on Friday, Australia pretty much started a five-match Test series with a fielder saving a boundary.

First half-centurion of the series, England opening batter Zak Crawley hitting a cracking first-ball four off Cummins further motivated the latter to bowl with a defensive field. As a result, within no time, Australian new-ball bowlers were bowling with several fielders on the boundary to affect their chances of picking early wickets in this format.

Kevin Pietersen Differentiates Between Pat Cummins and Ben Stokes’ Captaincy

In a video uploaded by Sky Sports Cricket on social media platform Twitter, Pietersen laid emphasis on how batters are susceptible to getting out before reaching double digits especially in a Test match. With Cummins opening the field in the first 15 minutes of a Test, he didn’t hand a chance but a gift to the opposition to get set by milking ones and twos without having to do a lot of hard work.

“England started [with] Plan A. Can easily go to Plan B. Yesterday, Australia started Plan B. Too difficult to go back to Plan A.”

For the unversed, “Plan A” refers to the usual way of setting attacking field placements with a new ball. On the contrary, “Plan B” refers to defensive fielding placements. What Pietersen meant to say was that the first plan goes for a toss once batters are well-set and calling the shots.

To explain his point, Pietersen provided an example of both Crawley and veteran Australia opener David Warner. Allowed to rotate the strike right at the beginning of his innings, Crawley ended up scoring a brisk half-century.

Warner, meanwhile, didn’t receive authorization to rotate the strike. Hence, was spotted playing on a Stuart Broad delivery to his stumps in his desperate attempt to play a cover drive with hard hands.

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

Read More