Former English batsman Kevin Pietersen has made the shocking revelations in a recent interview to Betway as he said that he hates to play practice games or warm-up matches. The majority of team managements and boards ask players to prove match fitness by competing in the warm-up game before making an appearance for the national team. And KP has said he literally hates to be participating in a practice match.
South Africa born Pietersen represented England in 275 international cricket matches across three formats. He used to give more value to practice sessions than wasting time in practice games were there in intensity.
“I hated practice games, I hated trial games, I hated all that. I didn’t need to feel that match scenario. If you calculate my average from all of the warm-up games that we played it would be terrible. I didn’t want to play in them, I had no interest in them because they never made me feel like I felt when I practiced,” Pietersen said.
According to England’s highest third run-scorer across formats, confidence is the key for a player to get himself fit to play and represent the country. If a player is feeling good enough to compete and give his 100% in the game, he should play international matches and before that, he must train hard in the nets. And no cricketer is fully fit. They have to play with little injuries and niggles.
“Confidence is closely related to being match fit,” he says. “No player is free of niggles or little injuries, but I never ever went into an England match without being confident that I had put in the perfect preparation for it. Perfection in my practice was the reason for my consistent performances.”
“I was always asking myself a series of questions: How do I feel in training? Have I got the ability to defend the best ball that a bowler could run into the bowl at me when I walk out into the middle? Or have I not? If so, where do I need to focus my attention?
Kevin Pietersen also reflected that modern-day cricketers must have great fitness character. The fact is there is so much cricket around the globe apart from international cricket, especially twenty20 leagues like IPL, CPL, PSL, BBL, and more where they have to compete hard.
“I needed to know every single day that I played that I had done the most meticulous preparation so that when I crossed that white line I could execute the skill. I think I was one of a small group of people who thought about it like that.”
The nature of the cricket schedule means that players regularly have to adapt to new conditions in different parts of the world – not just in terms of pitches, but also climate.That makes returning to match fitness an even more difficult process.
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