England’s cricketing legend Kevin Pietersen has picked up his top playing XI of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021. The team consists of two wicketkeeper batsmen, England’s Jo Butler and Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan, who will open the batting from Pietersen’s team during the tournament. In a chat with cricket betting site Betway, Pietersen confirmed that the reason for considering Rizwan as an opener is that he has been consistently scoring runs for Pakistan. Along with battling his illness, Rizwan also scored a classy 67 against Australia in the latest semi-final clash.
The batting lineup for Pietersen’s team will be as follows: Babar Azam in the 3rd position, followed by Charith Asalanka and Aiden Markram completing the top five batting line-up in Pieterson’s playing XI. Two all-rounders, Moeen Ali and Wanindu Hasaranga have also found their place in the team.
Pietersen has next picked up four bowlers for his team to play in the tournament. He was quite impressed with leg-spinner Adam Zampa, especially his wicket-taking capabilities. Pieterson said that he thinks Zampa’s wicket-taking capabilities are one of the main reasons behind Australia’s win in the tournament.
The other three names in Pietersen’s playing XI are Trent Boult, Shaheen Shah Afridi, and South African fast bowler Anrich Nortje. It is to be noted that while three Pakistani players (highest from any team) were selected for Pietersen’s team, no Indian players were selected this season.
Australia won the ICC T20 World Cup tournament by beating New Zealand with a spare of 8 wickets. The Aussies were able to achieve the target of 173 runs set by New Zealand to claim the world cricketing champion title in the T20 format of the game.
Kevin Pietersen is one of the best and all-time greats of England’s cricket team. He is a 41 years old cricketing legend who represented his country in several tournaments and has some great records under his sleeve. He played in 104 tests, 136 ODIs, along with 37 T20s throughout his career, and he has given a stellar performance in each format of the game.
Pietersen has closely scrutinized all the players before considering them in his team of chosen few. He has analyzed the performance of each player in the World Cup T20 tournament and noticed how they have contributed to the team as a whole. All the players in his playing XI deserved a spot in the team due to their great performance lately.