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Cricket

28th Dec 2021

Kevin Pietersen tells England not to practice in bizarre advice after Ashes defeat

Callum Boyle

‘DO NOT GO TO THE NETS!’

Kevin Pietersen has given some bizarre advice to the England side after their Ashes humiliation and told them not to bother practicing ahead of the fourth test.

England’s torrid time down under continued after they were bowled out for 68 in the first session of the third test to gift Australia the victory by an emphatic innings and 14 runs.

Following defeat at the MCG, several comments have been made about the decline in red ball cricket from the England side, but with two Tests still to play in Sydney and Hobart the rest of the series will be about damaged limitation for the tourists.

But Pietersen has said that England’s embarrassing display shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone and that the team should stay away from the nets ahead of the Fourth Test.

Speaking on his Twitter account he said: “If you thought that this Ashes trip for the England players was going to be anything less than a shambles, you’ve missed the lead up and you didn’t watch the tour of India!

“Lead up – quarantine and Covid off field issues a nightmare! India – batters can’t bat!

“And still NOT blaming the players. It’s the system! And, I’ve been on two 5-0 defeats and they’re horrendous for all!

“My advice – DO NOT GO TO THE NETS! Get away from cricket & turn up the day of the next game.”

https://twitter.com/KP24/status/1475725535422685194

The initial inquest to the defeat has seen Head Coach Chris Silverwood take the majority of the blame, however he chose to look on the more optimistic side and claimed that there were still positives to take from the defeat.

He told BT Sport: “Yesterday we had a little bit of disruption in the morning and I think the way the guys applied themselves on the field and the way the bowling attack rallied and got us back into this game was a credit to them.

“The way we caught in the last innings was good as well and I think there are positives coming out of this.

“We want to take something away from this series and we want to come back and compete in the last two Test matches.

“We do have some world-class players and some youngsters as well who are learning on the job constantly.

“What we have to do is try and give them some confidence, we know they have ability and we do back them.”

The Fourth Test begins in Sydney on 5 January.

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