I'm not good at Twenty20 cricket: Pietersen

The 28-year-old ex-England captain has confessed he is not good at playing the hugely popular Twenty20 format but vowed to make amends during the World Championships, beginning next week.

The most expensive IPL player and flamboyant England batsman Kevin Pietersen has confessed he is not good at playing the hugely popular Twenty20 format but vowed to make amends during in the World Championships, beginning next week.

HT Image

"I'm not very good at Twenty20 cricket, am I?" Pietersen said on the eve of the World T20 Championships in England.

"The more you play T20 cricket the better you become and I haven't played a lot of it, and I'm not very good at it," he was quoted as saying by 'The Mirror'.

Pietersen, who was not a part of the inaugural edition of IPL, played only six matches in the IPL-II in South Africa and has made just one T20 50 for England, averaging 26.

Pietersen disclosed he had developed new theories to suit his batting to the quickest format of the game.

"The more I play it though the more I'll catch up with my records in Test and one-day cricket definitely. I just know that I will get much better at it. I've worked out some new theories about how to go about my batting in T20 and that will make a difference, hopefully starting next week!" he said.

The 28-year-old ex-England captain, who failed to impress as the Royal Challengers Bangalore captain in IPL, said he loved the experience.

"I made a great captain didn't I," Pietersen said in a lighter vein.

"We won two out of six when I was there and then Anil Kumble took over and they got to the final.

"People are going to take pot shots at me over the IPL and the money I earned in two weeks, but it was such a great experience. I loved it," he said.

He sought to explain the reason behind gaffes like not knowing the names of his RCB team members even at time of toss in IPL.

"To captain the side four days after arriving and not knowing what some of the guys did and not knowing most of their names made it a huge task for me. I wasn't as focused on my batting as I was on trying to learn guys names and what they did," he said.

It was less than two years ago that Pietersen called Twenty20 a 'silly game with silly shots' but he admits his attitude to the game has since changed.