Pietersen vs. Cook

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Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

Who will end up with the superior career? Most people would have said Pietersen a few years back, but Cook now has a better average and an equal number of centuries.

 

[Bun]

both extremely overrated. expect cook to regress to mean arnd 43 44 avg, pietersen is slighly more talented so maybe he'll be up and running... cant see avging above 50 tho.

 

[NasserFan207]

Cook will easily have the better career imo. And I predicted that after the Pakistan series.

 

[Blaze 18]

Pietersen

 

[Spark]

KP fast regressing into hack territory. Hardly done - or more pertinently looked like doing - anything of use, one innings aside, for two-three years now.

 

[Shri]

Cook is just in good form. KP has class. He will end up being better after a few years.

 

[ankitj]

Would love to say Pietersen but he has been so disappointing for so long now!

 

[hang on]

expect both to end up with mid to late 40s averages, which, to me, is about right.

 

[Spark]

Nothing wrong with having a high-40s average tbh.

 

[Debris]

All else being equal, you pick the opener.

 

[hang on]

quite right, spark.

i should have prefaced it with the great man's statement, "not that there's anything wrong with that".

the thing about kp was that he was being talked about as if he was the next truly great batsman after a couple of years. yes, he was damn good then but the athertons of the world already had him pegged at the best in the world at that time....a time when ponting was in his pomp, kallis was doing superbly, sangakkara couldn't stop scoring 150s, etc.

and i like atherton...consider him to be a cerebral analyst. and enjoy his sardonic, laconic commentating too. an excellent duet with hussein.

 

[Spark]

That's a good point. He's one of a few batsmen around whose records are still quite good who are either easily underrated or come in for undue criticism/unusual scrutiny simply because they were tagged as potential/future ATGs early in their careers.

Mind you KP really does have to start performing, and soon. I'd give him until the end of the season myself - or until someone not named Ravi Bopara is bashing the door down.

 

[hang on]

yep, spark, part of it could well be an (over)reaction to the initial hyperbole.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Remember SS said in 2006 that Cook would end up being better than KP when he first saw him. I was like WTF at time, but now I'm thinking that he might be right. KP has just been **** for so long now, he never looks like getting out of this awful form.

 

[Spark]

yep, spark, part of it could well be an (over)reaction to the initial hyperbole.

He's not alone, but I think that now that for the most part the concern is warranted. Although maybe he should be given a bit more leeway having made 200+ not long ago, **** attack aside. He batted OK in the last two Ashes tests too.

 

[Top_Cat]

KP is the more gifted player but Cook looks like having the greater overall career. Even when not looking great, still manages to score runs. KP needs to be in the flow to really do well so you'd imagine if it all gets too hard to motivate himself (being away from family, etc.), he'll just give it away.

 

[kiwiviktor81]

I think Cook is psychologically more sound than KP, which will allow him to avoid the same kind of form slumps that KP is undergoing. Pietersen probably has more raw talent, though.

 

[four_or_six]

Averages may end up similar, but Cook is miles younger so he will end up with all the England run scoring records.

 

[hang on]

might even end up with all the world aggregate run records if he plays for another 10 or 12 years.

 

[BoyBrumby]

As Spark observed, KP's double at Adelaide is probably his only meaningful contribution to tests for a couple of years now (he scored an 80 v Pakistan last summer in which he was put down 4 times and seemed to have a bat made entirely of edges), but he did look back to his majestic best during the T20 WC triumph. I know that will set all the anti-T20 crowd vomiting into their cornflakes, but it was classic, brutal Pietersen regards of format.

As to the Q at hand, I think it's one for the historians myself; in the here and now Cook would be selected first by just about everyone. Whether KP's malaise is mental or physical is hard to know; I kind of learn towards the former, but he had had to have ops for two pretty serious ailments of late. Flower and Strauss both suggested his hernia could've been managed until the end of the ODI WC but Pietersen chose to leave early. Neither seem overly given to airing dirty laundry through the fourth estate, so I think we can assume they were quite non-plussed by the decision.

I'd guess he has one test and the one dayers to come to find some semblance of form or else we might see him replaced, which would've been unthinkable a couple of years ago. One of Patel or Taylor (averaging 50 & 60 respectively for the season) to come in is my guess.