“Shades Of Yuvraj Singh”: Kevin Pietersen Clean Bowled By India Star

England great Kevin Pietersen on Tuesday termed Varun Chakravarthy’s inclusion in the Indian squad for three ODIs against England as “a great decision” but backed the visitors to fare better against the right-arm spinner in the longer version. Chakravarthy was all over England in the five-T20I series taking 14 wickets in India’s 4-1 series win, following which he has been added to the ODI side with the series starting in Nagpur on Thursday. “The English batters would be better against him in the one-dayers because they can spend more time. It’s a longer format, not every ball is an event. But I think it is a great decision (to add Chakravarthy),” Pietersen told media on the sidelines of the launch of Dram Bell Scotch Whisky.

Pietersen termed England’s loss in T20Is as a “disaster”, adding that the series would have been levelled in Pune if a like-for-like concussion substitution for Shivam Dube had been used instead of tearaway quick Harshit Rana.

“It was a disappointing series from England’s perspective. I think that in the fourth T20I, if the concussion substitution had been done correctly, maybe England would have got up there,” he said.

“It would have been 2-2 coming to the Wankhede (Stadium for final T20I). It would have been way more on the game. But it didn’t happen.” Pietersen said India great Yuvraj Singh is “rubbing off” now on Abhishek Sharma who played the “best T20I innings I’ve ever seen”.

“Abhishek is amazing. He had the shades (of Yuvraj)…. Obviously, Yuvraj is rubbing off now on Abishek. His batting was fantastic. It was the best T20 international innings, I’ve ever seen and I said that to him afterwards,” Pietersen said.

“It was effortless. The stroke play was great, there was no funky shots, no ramping, no sweeping, reverse sweeping. It was just perfection,” the former England captain wouldn’t stop gushing about the Punjab southpaw’s hitting ability. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)