The ever-famous English cricketing legend and the ambassador for Betway, Kevin Pietersen selected the players of his own playing XI from the recently concluded T20 World Cup. In the latest Betway post, several skilled batsmen and bowlers make it through Pietersen’s list. However, when speaking about the teams that clashed together in the finals – England and Pakistan, he finalised on the names of Buttler, Hales, Curran, Shadab, and Afridi. He found them the prime players in the finals as well as in the whole tournament.
ICC (International Cricket Council) returned with the 8th season of the Men’s T20 World Cup in 2022 and selected Australia as the host nation. During the tournament, a total of 45 matches were played among 16 participating countries from 16 October to 13 November 2022. A total of around 750 thousand people turned up to attend the historical event. The final took place on Melbourne Cricket Ground between England and Pakistan. England won the toss and elected to field. Pakistan scored a total of 137/8 in 20 overs, while England made a total of 138/5 in just 19 overs, thus winning the title by 5 wickets and 6 balls left. Buttler of England had a strike rate of 152.94, while Sam Curran dismissed 3 Pakistani batsmen while only giving 12 runs in 4 overs.
Coming back to Pietersen’s picks, in his Betway post, he selected England’s Joss Buttler (225 runs), Alex Hales (212 runs), and Sam Curran (13 wickets), on the basis of their extraordinary performance in the tournament. Speaking of Buttler, Pietersen said that with his immaculate talent of guiding his team through the series and becoming his country’s leading scorer as well, Buttler proved that he was indeed the right choice to fill into the massive shows of Eoin Morgan as the captain of the team. At the same time, he called Hales “a match-winner” and said that he always gave his best whenever asked of him. Pietersen also praised the “rise” of Curran from his days being England’s part-timer to becoming Player of the Tournament at a World Cup. Pietersen feels that moving forward, Curran shall be one of the key players for the country.
The Runner-up team of the world cup – Pakistan, also gets their share of appreciation from the former English legend. Pietersen names his two favorite Pakistani players – Shadab Khan (11 wickets) and Shaheen Shah Afridi (11 wickets). Pietersen feels that Khan was one of the prime reasons that Pakistan was able to make it to the finals. During their clash against South Africa in the Knockouts, Khan was impressively consistent with his ball, and this helped the Green Squad to the finals, feels Pietersen. Afridi, says Pietersen, has proven his mantle from time to time that he can give a powerful world-class pace attack at just 22 years of age. Pietersen goes so far as to say that, had it not come to Afridi getting injured in the finals, Pakistan was in a shot of lifting the trophy.
