Kevin Pietersen talks about his IPL Experience

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The IPL season will be here soon and all the franchise owners, players, and fans are waiting for it with a lot of anticipation. The Indian Premier League is nothing short of a grand cricket carnival, an entertainment extravaganza, which everyone looks forward to every year.

While the fans wait to watch their favorite cricketers, the cricketers themselves look forward to playing alongside some of the greats of the game.

Betway recently spoke to Kevin Pietersen about his IPL experience, in which he has made some very interesting observations while describing the league as spectacular, gripping, and captivating.

Pietersen started his IPL stint in 2009 with the Royal Challengers Bangalore and even captained them, a team that included stalwarts like Virat Kohli, AB De Villiers, Chris Gayle, and Virender Sehwag.

In the later part of his career he moved to Delhi Daredevils, now known as the Delhi Capitals.

KP has scored 1,001 runs in 36 IPL matches at an average of 35.8 and a strike rate of 134.7 with a highest score of 103.

At one point he was the most expensive player bought at the IPL auction.

Speaking to Betway about his IPL experience, KP reminisced about the interaction with other greats, the pressure, team spirit, captaincy, and what it means to play and watch cricket in India.

He says that he always wanted to be part of the IPL because as a professional one should not be behind the pacemakers of the game, and back in 2008-2009 the pacemaker was the Indian Premier League.

“One could learn from the greats of the game. How they practiced, how they spoke, how they approached the game, how they conducted themselves in team meetings, how meticulous they were in their preparation, how they trained, how they padded up …”

Hearing KP say this shows the admiration he has for the IPL and what it means for players around the world.

He also spoke about the pressure that the IPL brings on, just due to the fact that franchise owners have invested their millions on a player, which brings with it added responsibility.

The pressure of playing internationals is quite different from the pressure associated with the IPL according to KP. He provides quite an intriguing example and speaks about the difference between walking out to bat at Lord’s and walking out to bat for your IPL franchise.

The announcer at Lord’s would say “coming out to bat is England’s number 4 Kevin Pietersen”.

The announcer at the Wankhede or Ferozshah Kotla would say “coming out to bat is the world’s most expensive buy in the IPL auction” and with it there will be banging music and fans jumping and shouting in the stands.

Pietersen’s most interesting reveals were about his experience of playing with other stars like Virender Sehwag and a young Virat Kohli when he was just starting out.

About Sehwag, he loved his careless free spirit and how he used to sing while bowlers ran up to bowl and then whack them all over the park. KP calls him a superstar and says some his most fun experiences in the cricket field were with Sehwag.

He goes on to talk about how he always knew that Kohli was destined for greatness because of his sheer determination to be the best possible player he could be, because of how he approached the game, how he learnt, how he was always determined to get his team over the line.

KP talks about this incredible friendship he shares with Kohli despite him being a lot senior, while sharing a few stories about making fun of Kohli’s chubbiness in his early days.

He signs off by talking about how huge cricket in general and the IPL in specific is in India.

“Nothing compares to the IPL in India. There is nothing more spectacular, gripping, and captivating. There is no better entertainment than watching cricket in a packed Indian stadium”

Hearing the crowd cheering when Dhoni walks out to bat, or watching those partnerships between Kohli and AB De Villiers, according to KP, there is nothing like it in this sport.

It sure is a full entertainment package and the way KP describes it in his talk with Betway, I can only wonder what it would be like to be a part of this extravaganza as a pure spectator.