Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen has taken an indirect dig at Nasser Hussain for his “end of an era” comment regarding the current England team as Jos Buttler’s side is all but out of the semi-final race in the World Cup 2023.
England lost to Sri Lanka at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore by 8 wickets. This being their 4th loss in 5 matches in the tournament, they are almost out of the semi-final contention and would need a miracle to reach the top 4.
After the loss, Nasser Hussain commented that this potential group-stage exit “feels like we’re coming to the end of an era” of England’s golden white-ball generation that revolutionized their cricket over the past 7-8 years and produced great results in ICC white-ball tournaments.
Kevin Pietersen slammed the negative comments and the “end of era” opinions.
Pietersen tweeted: “This England white ball team has given us many years of absolute joy and excitement. I’m seeing quite a bit of negativity and ‘end of era’ stuff. If it is, that’s life.
Don’t start the blame game. You’re embarrassing if you do!”
They have collapsed as a unit: Nasser Hussain
England have not been upto their standards in the batting performances in this competition. Only one century was made by an Englishman so far – by Dawid Malan against Bangladesh – and four half-centuries, two of them from Joe Root.
In his column for Sky Sports, Nasser Hussain wrote: “If you walk in that England dressing room now and asked them to put their hand on heart and say ‘are you in good nick?’ I reckon maybe only one or two could say that.
They have collapsed as a unit. Their form has deserted them and it just feels like we’re coming to the end of an era. It has been a bridge too far for some of them.”
Nasser Hussain, however, asserted that some of the players in the current squad as the all-time best ODI players of England, and there’s no change he would make in the squad.
“That said, it’s so easy to be wise after the event. Some of those cricketers on that park today would go in your best-ever England white-ball XI and I wouldn’t have changed things before the tournament,” he added.
England have another big challenge coming up: India in Lucknow.
