Pietersen not happy with England’s bold innings announcement, Nasir Hussain said brilliant

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Birmingham | England’s surprise decision to declare their first innings at 393/8 evoked mixed reactions from their former players. Kevin Pietersen didn’t like the bold announcement, while Nasser Hussain called it a brilliant move.

Joe Root scored his 30th Test century (118 not out) on the opening day of the Ashes at Edgbaston as England stuck to their ultra-aggressive and bold approach to playing Test cricket by declaring a surprise declaration at 393/8 in 78 overs .

Although Pietersen acknowledged that the announcement reflected England’s new approach to playing Test cricket, he was not a fan of the decision, citing a flat pitch that gave Australia’s batsmen opportunities to score runs in the coming days.

“We were talking about announcing, we were thinking about announcing, but two or three years ago there wouldn’t even be a hint of an announcement. But with this team, are we surprised?”

“I don’t think we are but I’m just a little surprised by how flat this wicket actually is,” Pietersen was quoted as saying by Sky Sports. We saw Australia batting out there now and both openers were out. Didn’t happen. I didn’t like the announcement.”

Hussain, on the other hand, believes that the announcement saw the world witness old foes Stuart Broad and David Warner coming face to face once again before stumps on the first day’s play.

Hussain said, “I told Ben Stokes a month ago in Chennai, ‘If you have eight wickets in the first innings, will you declare?’ He said, ‘Yeah, why would we send Jimmy Anderson to bat? He didn’t send him in to bat, he sent his bowlers to get Warner out. David Warner and Usman Khawaja, however, secured the remaining four overs of the day.

“Fantastic (announcement). I loved the announcement because I wanted to see David Warner vs Stuart Broad. I got Stokes. Stokes was always going to do it,” he said.

–IANS

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