How good do you think Kevin "King Viv" Pietersen can be ?

[Salamuddin]

I have not seen a player as supremely confident as Pietersen since Richie "Hook em for Six" Richardson and of course King Viv. He's got the same swagger that King Viv had as well the penchant to play shots all around and out of the park.


I reckon Pietersen will be remembered as one of the greats when he finishes up.....I really do think he's that good....
He will be England's bext batsman (and their next true great) I feel over the next few years.

What do you guys (especially Hingston) think ?

 

[superkingdave]

nah, he'll be alright but end up averaging 45

 

[Matt79]

He's been a really good player for England to date, and he does seem to have the X-factor that makes you want to watch what he's going to do.

Obviously he's very new to his test career, and he'll need to sustain this for at least another couple of years before I'd label him a great.

Good for cricket however, especially in England, where they probably needed a better pin-up to promote the game than Rampers...

 

[Goughy]

TBF and very boring I dont know.
I suspect he will have a very good career by England batting standards but whether the average will be high enough or enough runs scored enough to be classed as great is unknown to me.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

He'll be the greatest England Batsman ever.

 

[GIMH]

nah, he'll be alright but end up averaging 45

I'd go ten higher personally. KP, Bell and Cook all to finish their careers with 50+ averages. You heard it here first folks.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Annoys me immensely, but he's a remarkable talent. As he is, I think he'll be one of the top batsmen in the world, but perhaps a bit inconsistent to be an all-time great. Being very much an eye player and quite reckless might see him suffer form long-term form slumps from time to time, similar to a Sehwag or a Gilchrist in the last 3 or 4 years.

Having said that, some batsmen mature as they move into their late 20s/early 30s and improve a great deal (Ponting, Waugh, Kallis etc), so who knows what he's capable of.

 

[Barney Rubble]

IMO he'll be the outstanding batsman of the generation that follows the one containing Lara, Tendulkar, Ponting et al. By that I mean yes, he'll be an all-time great.

 

[Slow Love™]

With his talent, you would definitely expect him to average 50+ - at the moment it's just below, which is probably because he's been (surprisingly, given how well he seems to play spin) a bit patchy on the subcontinent.

I have no idea whether he'll end up being a great, but he definitely seems to have the attribute that all the great players have - the ability to stand up and perform when his team really needs it. He shows real character at the crease, and is very hard to intimidate.

 

[silentstriker]

He'll be the greatest England Batsman ever.

Sir Jack Hobbs might disagree with you there.

 

[silentstriker]

I think he'll be a Sehwag or a Younis, rather than Tendy or Lara or Ponting.

 

[tooextracool]

It really depends on his shot selection and temperament. He has the tools to be a great player, but i do think that he needs to be given a kick on the back occasionally, certainly if others are performing better than him, as has been the case over the last year before the Ashes.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Sir Jack Hobbs might disagree with you there.

As I say to all my patients who claim to be in contact with Elvis Presley - "The man is dead."


Incidently, if this is your idea of not posting for two days your technique needs a bit of refinement.

 

[silentstriker]

As I say to all my patients who claim to be in contact with Elvis Presley - "The man is dead."


Incidently, if this is your idea of not posting for two days your technique needs a bit of refinement.

I can't help it, I'm addicted.

 

[chalky]

I would probably rate him the 2nd tier of top batsmen at the moment.

1st Tier - Pointing, Dravid, Lara, Kallis

2nd Tier - Pietersen, Yousef, Inzamen, Jayawardene, Hayden, Sehwag etc

Another couple of good years though for Pietersen, Yousef & Jayawardene & they could definately crack the top tier.

In Pietersens favour though is that he has had 5 really tough series Australia home & away, Pakistan home & Away, Sri Lanka home & India Away. in that time he has played all the worlds top bowlers barring the South African quicks and still averages over 50.

You would expect his average to go up over the next couple years has he plays some weaker teams.

What seperates him from some of the batsmen aswell is that he dominates attacks and scores at such a quick rate that he sets up games and has an intangable star quality about him.

Anyawy what do we class as a great pbatsmen these days? An average of 55 excluding Zimbabwe & Bangladesh?

 

[PhoenixFire]

Could be great, and will be in my eyes. Has all the talent in the world, and has a great cricketing brain. I'm gonna back him to score 8000 Test runs.

 

[UncleTheOne]

His innings last night was his most mature to date. He made Warne look utterly toothless. His offside game has improved drastically, will be an England great, world great? maybe.

 

[thierry henry]

When I first saw him I didn't rate him for the simple reason that he didn't seem to have any shots through the off-side at all. To my amazement he now looks quite a well-rounded player, so there doesn't seem to be anything really holding him back.

 

[Dravid]

A batsman who can reverse sweep the ball for six is something special.

 

[Robertinho]

I have not seen a player as supremely confident as Pietersen since Richie "Hook em for Six" Richardson and of course King Viv. He's got the same swagger that King Viv had as well the penchant to play shots all around and out of the park.


I reckon Pietersen will be remembered as one of the greats when he finishes up.....I really do think he's that good....
He will be England's bext batsman (and their next true great) I feel over the next few years.

What do you guys (especially Hingston) think ?

Funnily enough I was thinking the exact same thing yesterday. That sort of overwhelming desire to dominate bowlers, and you rarely get the feeling that he's even close to getting out.

Time will tell, but at the moment, he has that touch of Viv Richards about him.