Hurt Pietersen stays back home to ‘heel’ his wound England need KP for Ashes: Dravid

A day after announcing that discarded England ace Kevin Pietersen would join the Sunrisers Hyderabad squad for their business end of the IPL on Friday, SRH made a turnaround saying the star batsman had to stay back in England to nurse a heel injury.

“Unfortunately for both parties — KP and Sunrisers, he wont be featuring this year,” SRH head coach Tom Moody said on Thursday, eve of their match against Royal Challengers Bangalore.

“He was supposed to arrive tomorrow evening. Unfortunately he pulled up a little sore after his triple hundred (326 not out for Surrey against Leicestershire), but he wasn’t really concerned about it,” Moody informed.

“He had a precautionary scan done which he didn’t have any great concern about but as it turned out there was a little bit of concern as the report came back that he has got inflamed Achilles tendon which is an injury that he had a couple of years ago which has flared up,” the SRH coach explained.

Pietersen was bought by SunRisers Hyderabad in this year’s auction but was allowed to return home to England to play county cricket at his request. However, being told the doors of the national cricket team were shut, despite his recent triple century in a county game, the flamboyant batsman has decided to come down to India for the IPL, a tournament in which he has played 32 games so far, scoring 928 runs at an impressive strike rate of 136.07. Calling England and Wales Cricket Board’s decision to ignore Kevin Pietersen as “strange”, former India skipper Rahul Dravid said England will be under pressure during the upcoming Ashes series in July-August.

“I enjoyed interacting with KP. It is strange and disappointing for him and his fans. He was given the impression that he would be picked if he scores runs in County cricket. But that didn’t happen. England have put a lot of pressure on themselves. If they win the Ashes then it will be fine but if they lose then this (KP) issue will rack up again,” the Rajasthan Roya l s team men- tor said at the launch of a new social initiative “Bat for the Girl Child” aimed at empowering the girl child.

Pietersen was told by newly-appointed England Director of Cricket, Andrew Strauss, hours after cracking an unbeaten triple hundred for Surrey in a county game that he will not be considered for England in the immediate future.

Former England woman cricketer of Indian origin, Isa Guha, echoed Dravid’s views but felt Pietersen issue has overshadowed everything. “It has not been handled well by both sides. There has been a mi s c o mmunicati o n . Like Rahul said, it will put a lot of pressure on England. I just hope English cricket can come out good,” Guha said. “But a lot has gone on in last two-three years. He hasn’t helped himself in particular situations. There is a lot of baggage there. They seem to have decided to move on. It’s sad there is so much focus on KP though there are fine young players like Root, Balance, Butler and others,”

Guha added.

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