The upcoming edition of IPL will feature Kevin Pietersen as one of the commentators. As he is just heading out to UAE after covering the recent international matches in England, he expressed his views on his expectations from the IPL.
The former RCB skipper, while speaking to Betway ahead of the most expected IPL 2020, shared his opinion on how the experience will be living in a bio bubble. He was on the notion that it won’t be a standard IPL by any means and that players, along with broadcasters, will surely miss the atmosphere that they get when played in India.
He felt that it would be difficult for several players to get going without any buzz but opined that they have to find different ways to get themselves adapted to such strange circumstances.
About the Bubble
Kevin Pietersen also touched upon how players will cope with living in the bio-bubble. With such type of environment created only during the international games in England, he said it would be a new experience for everyone except for those who played in England.
With already some players pulling out, KP said he is looking forward to seeing whether the players succumb to the pressure of the bubble or all remain intact in the squad.
On the young Indian talent, he is excited to see.
He says he is excited as always to see some of the incredible Indian talent coming out from the IPL. He also singled it out on Shubman Gill as the one whom he is eagerly waiting to wait. He said, and I quote “Shubman Gill can play classical cricket, but he has the ability to turn it on and hit sixes at will.”
On MS Dhoni
With this being the first tournament since MS Dhoni’s retirement, Kevin Pietersen was asked about what he is expecting from the CSK captain this season. He says he is looking forward to seeing what future holds for MSD, whether this will be his last IPL.
But he feels MS Dhoni’s calm, cool, unassuming nature of captaincy will be undeterred no matter whatever happens. The talismanic former England batsman feels it will be interesting to see how MS fares for CSK as a match-winner, the finisher.
Which team he is rooting for?
KP says without hesitation he wants Delhi capitals to win the IPL as he loves their ownership structure and that he is still very close to them. Infact, he says he had some best of his best IPL years and played some of his best IPL innings while representing Delhi franchise in the past.
He further expresses his love to see this team turn a corner and wishes everybody to fire.
His thoughts on RCB
Pietersen says RCB is always the biggest talking point in IPL and a team watches mainly because of the partnership between Virat and ABD. But at the same time, he finds its baffling to see this team never won an IPL tournament and often underperform. Kevin himself started his IPL career in for RCB in 2009 and felt nothing was wrong there.
He says even with great players like Chris Gayle in part, they haven’t been able to get their hands on IPL which he felt is strange. But he finishes on a positive note saying that things might go differently this season, with a change in personnel.
This interview was conducted by Online Cricket Betting company Betway.
