Pietersen looking the part as England captain
Thursday, 04 Sep 2008 00:24
Kevin Pietersen has led from the front as England captain thus far
In a clipped South African accent and with a straight-talking attitude, Kevin Pietersen's way of accentuating the positive is winning over those who doubted whether he should be England skipper.
Some of the doubters might even be current members of the England team - the same side that ended a run of poor form by winning a Test match under the new captain and administering a 4-0 one-day "pounding" (Pietersen's word) of South Africa.
Pietersen got the high-risk nod as England captain over the likes of Rob Key, Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss because the selectors were intent on getting a man who would be captain in both the one- and five-day forms of the game. Only the Hampshire player is assured selection in both starting XIs.
Their reasoning is understandable but so too were the doubts that Pietersen would struggle with the extra responsibility. After all, the task of captaincy was too much for Paul Collingwood, who was only one-day captain.
So what marks Pietersen out from batsmen such as Michael Vaughan and Nasser Hussein, who found out that captaincy and good performances don't always mix?
The answer is that it's too early to say yet, but the new skipper's relative youth (he's 28) and obvious energy bode well for the future. The fact that he is a specialist middle-order batsman could also be to his advantage. He won't have to multi-task as much as wicketkeeper captains like Alex Stewart or all-rounder captains such as Andrew Flintoff and Ian Botham.
So far, tossing the coin doesn't seem to be affecting his batting, which is flourishing under the pressure of getting the best out of less confident players.
It has been noticeable that Pietersen's new job has coincided with Steve Harmison's both returning to the team and returning to form. Stuart Broad also seems to be re-generated - raising the prospect of England fielding a genuine pace quartet to strike fear into opposition openers.
Pietersen's belief in his man-management skills is evident in his attempt to bring back Marcus Trescothick into the international fold. Chasing seemingly lost causes isn't an entirely bad habit for an England captain to get into.
Leading his players down the pavilion steps could force this colourful individual's detractors to finally recognise him as the team player he is frequently criticised for failing to be.
Maybe they should look at how Pietersen and Flintoff spent much of August sharing some useful partnerships out in the middle against the South Africans. Whereas previously they have seemed to be competing against each other, they at last seem to be working together.
Flintoff's form and fitness is often seen as a barometer of England's cricketing health and his recent contributions with the bat means that the prognosis for the immediate future is looking good.
His new captain was criticised for promoting him to number six in the Test side and number five in the one-day team when Freddie was not scoring freely. But the decision was right.
Much of Pietersen's fate will rest on whether his luck continues and if key players among his charges can remain injury-free.
Off the field, the media will be keen to pounce on rumours that he isn't on the closest of terms with some of the selectors - expect those Chinese whispers to start growing louder when the winning streak ends.
The forthcoming tour of India will require different captaincy skills and slower pitches which will test the captain's new-found (or previously unrecognised) reserves of patience.
But of course it is impossible not to have one eye on next summer's Ashes clash.
If Pietersen survives that long there will be some that say that he will need to beat the Australians in at least one Test match to hang on to the captaincy.
Pietersen would be appalled by the suggestion. He thinks his team will win the series.
James Christie