No disrespect but they’re not Johnson or Akhtar: Pietersen's brutal assessment on England's pace attack in Ashes opener

Kevin Pietersen compared the current set with former stars Mitchell Johnson, Shoaib Akhtar, who he believed had more fire in terms of pace.

The ongoing Ashes encounter in Edgbaston has mostly been about another episode of Ben Stokes' brave captaincy. Stokes' captaincy created quite a buzz among fans and ex-cricketers after his bold move to declare England's first innings at 393/8. Not only the ex-cricketers but England's men's national team coach Gareth Southgate was also impressed with Stokes' fearless approach.

Kevin Pietersen's brutal assessment on England's pace attack in Ashes opener

Stokes' bold move was nicely supported by his bowlers as Australia were folded for 386, helping England take a slender seven-run lead going into the second innings. Stokes got the prized wicket of Steve Smith and Moeen Ali accounted for two more as England's pace troika – James Anderson, Stuart Broad, and Ollie Robinson – combined to scalp the remaining seven wickets.

Despite the heavy lifting by the pacers, former England all-rounder Kevin Pietersen feels the current set of pacers are something “not to be feared". In fact he compared the current set with former stars Mitchell Johnson, Shoaib Akhtar, who he believes had more fire in terms of pace. Pietersen feels if there is anyone who could create a similar impact then it would be Mark Wood, who is not part of the Edgbaston Test.

The former all-rounder made the observation while discussing Travis Head's problems in dealing with the short deliveries, asking the swashbuckling batter to be more aggressive.

"There's a reason why the bowlers targeted in there (short deliveries) because we do feel, well everybody feels he (Travis Head) has an issue. And I don't mean to be disrespectful at all to the single bowling lineup but they're (England pacers) not to be feared. And I'll say that from a pace wise perspective where you've got guys bowling at 80 mile an hour, 83 mile an hour. You don't have Mitchell Johnson running in at 95 or Shoaib Akhtar, or even Woody (Mark Wood). Woody will run in and he will test you?

“So you need to have your wits about you when it comes to that instinctive way of playing. Whereas against (Stuart) Broad at 82-83 and (Ollie) Robinson at 80-82. I'm sorry the way that he played it wasn't as good as he should be playing it and absolutely no way. So it's a problem and when you get targeted with a short ball, it rocks your foundations as a batter,” said Pietersen during an interaction on Sky Sports.

He justified his statement by citing the example of his former colleague Jonathan Trott, who faced a similar problem during his playing days.

“I remember that with Jonathan Trott, when Jonathan went through that period batting a three with us and everybody started to go short to him, it really rocked his foundations as a batter. So it's an issue for Head,” he added.