Real test for Pietersen

Although he has played 42 tests till date, this will be the first "real" test for Kevin Pietersen. Thrust into the role of captaincy after Michael Vaughan resigned few days back, Pietersen is all set to face the first real test of his cricketing career against the South Africans in the final test at The Oval starting today.

As a first step, Pietersen has named an attacking team, which has both Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison combined with the swing of Jimmy Anderson and the wily left arm spin of Monty Panesar. Ravi Bopara, who was brought in as a replacement for Vaughan, seems, will be left out of the playing eleven.

Pietersen has been an attacking player all through his test career till date and it remains to be seen whether he plays the same way with the captaincy being the additional burden. There was also some speculation about the rift between coach Peter Moores and Pietersen and that has been put to rest by KP himself in the pre match conference.

It remains to be seen if Pietersen will enjoy the support of his mates as he has few captains' within his team himself. He has asked all the players to play by instinct and play attacking cricket.
Welcome to the new world of captaincy. Its the Pietersen's world of captaincy. Will it be a hit? Will it take England to the next level? Only time will tell.

End of an Era

Michael Vaughan, the most successful captain of England cricket team resigned after his team's loss to South Africa in the recent test series. It brings an end to Vaughan's 51-match run as captain, four games short of becoming England's long-serving leader, although his 26 victories makes him, statistically, the most successful captain.

Pressure on Vaughan has been growing in recent months despite back-to-back series victories against New Zealand. The series loss to South Africa is England's third in five series, dating back to the 1-0 reversal against India last summer. They then lost by the same margin in Sri Lanka before losing the first Test against New Zealand in Hamilton. Vaughan led a shake-up of the team by dropping Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison and England hit back to take the series, but the performances were not convincing.

Winning the ashes in 2005, beating South Africa away and beating West Indies away were one of the high points in Vaughan's captaincy tenure.