Former England batter Kevin Pietersen has touched upon social media’s damaging role in a rivalry between veteran Australia batter David Warner and veteran England pacer Stuart Broad. Although Pietersen was speaking particularly about Warner getting out to Broad time and again, he meant it for all modern-day cricketers who face severe criticism across social media platforms with each failure.
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Facing each other in Test cricket for a decade now, Warner and Broad have battled it out in front of one another in 46 Test innings thus far. Broad, who has dismissed Warner 15 times in the format, unequivocally has an upper hand in this rivalry. With the left-handed batter averaging less than 20 against his nemesis, one can’t even be argue that he gets out to Broad after scoring a lot of runs.
It is worth of a mention that these number of dismissals are the joint fifth-highest for a batter-bowler combination in the history of Test cricket and that there are only five more pairs who feature above Warner and Broad in this list.
Kevin Pietersen Explains Social Media’s Damaging Role On David Warner-Stuart Broad Rivalry
Responding to a question put up by former England batter Ian Ward in the presence of former Australia captain Ricky Ponting in a video posted on the YouTube channel of Sky Sports Cricket on the morning of the ongoing first Ashes 2023 Test match at Edgbaston, Pietersen laid emphasis on Warner’s issue against Broad getting escalated to another level after been out in the public comprising all the stakeholders in fans, experts and media.
On top of all this, Pietersen didn’t forget to mention an immense amount of pressure generated by fans and critics on social media. Warner, who has an active presence on these applications, is all the more susceptible to receive hate comments.
“The [Stuart] Broad issue is a big issue because the media have got a hold of it [and] the crowd have got a hold of it. That becomes even more a problem. When you are in the bright lights of international sport, the media start to go at a certain topic, even though you may not think it’s a problem, it becomes a very big problem. Because that’s all you read about, that’s all you see.
“Also, the added pressure that these guys have got now on social media. They are just getting cleaned up all the time. I hate to see what his social media looked like yesterday after Broad knocked him over again. It becomes a real personal issue.”
“It Becomes A Lonely Place” – Pietersen On Head-to-Head Battle Between Players
Contrary to Ponting, Pietersen considered that a batter struggling against a particular bowler on a repeated basis pushes him into a “lonely place” even if it isn’t the case initially. For the lack of a “hiding place” due to the aforementioned reasons, Pietersen opined how Warner’s over a 100-match experience in Test cricket must have witnessed several “downs” in the past such as this one.
Ponting, meanwhile, commented on how the support of your teammates come in handy in such situations. A fierce competitor during his playing days, Ponting refused to accept that he used to think about his struggles against former India spinner Harbhajan Singh back in the day. Readers must note that Singh had dismissed Ponting 10 times in 14 Tests back then.
Taking a cue from his above mentioned words, Pietersen further said that a batter might not realize such a battle until and unless the media doesn’t bring it to the limelight. Dismissed by former Australia pacer Peter Siddle 10 times across 17 Tests, Pietersen disclosed that it had started to become a problem for him “mentally” especially after his personal engagement into the battle.
